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diff --git a/37509.txt b/37509.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6f49b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/37509.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8827 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cassowary, by Stanley Waterloo + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cassowary + What Chanced in the Cleft Mountains + +Author: Stanley Waterloo + +Release Date: September 22, 2011 [EBook #37509] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASSOWARY *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + THE CASSOWARY + + [Illustration: "I HAVE BEEN NARROW," SAID THE MINISTER] + + + + + THE CASSOWARY + + What Chanced in the Cleft Mountains + + BY STANLEY WATERLOO + + + Author of "The Story of Ab," + "The Seekers," + "The Wolf's Long Howl," + "The Story of a Strange Career," + Etc., Etc. + + + PUBLISHERS + MONARCH BOOK COMPANY + CHICAGO + + + COPYRIGHT 1906 BY + MONARCH BOOK COMPANY + CHICAGO + + + + + CONTENTS + + + Chapter + + I. WHAT CHANCED IN THE CLEFT MOUNTAINS + II. A MAN + III. JOHN LIPSKY'S SIGN + IV. A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE + V. THE "FAR AWAY LADY" + VI. THE LIFE LINE + VII. A TOAD AND A SONG + VIII. ALAN MACGREGOR'S BROWN LEG + IX. THE HUGE HOUND'S MOOD + X. THE SIREN + XI. THE PORTER'S STORY + XII. THE PURPLE STOCKING + XIII. HESITANT + XIV. A TEST OF ATTITUDE + XV. A SAMOAN IDYL + XVI. A WOMAN AND SHEEP + XVII. THE ENCHANTED COW + XVIII. LOVE AND A ZULU + XIX. AT BAY SOFTLY + XX. LOVE WILL FIND THE WAY + XXI. A LITERARY LOVE AFFAIR + XXII. ABERCROMBIE'S WOOING + XXIII. EVAN CUMMINGS' COURTSHIP + XXIV. THE SWISS FAMILY ROBERTSON + XXV. THE LOWRY-TURCK LOVE ENTANGLEMENT + XXVI. THE PALE PEACOCK AND THE PURPLE HERRING + XXVII. THE RELEASE + XXVIII. LOVE'S INSOLENCE + XXIX. AT LAST + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "THE STOREKEEPER!" HE EXCLAIMED + "I HAVE BEEN NARROW," SAID THE MINISTER + THEY PLUNGED INTO THE WHITENESS + THE GREAT SNAKE BEGAN ITS WORK OF DEGLUTITION + THE BIG BODY RELAXED AND STRAIGHTENED OUT + THE MAYOR HAD BEEN GETTING INTERESTED + THE AWARD COULD BUT GO TO UNA LOA + THE CHILDREN CARRIED AWAY ARMFULS OF FLOWERS + SIR GLADYS ESCORTED THE LADY FLORETTA HOME + HE WAS UNCONSCIOUS AS A CHILD + A DOZEN OR MORE NESTS WERE FOUND + "WE SHALL MEET AT BREAKFAST" + + + + +THE CASSOWARY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHAT CHANCED IN THE CLEFT MOUNTAINS + + +The blizzard snorted and raged at midnight up the narrow pass west of +Pike's Peak, at the bottom of which lay the railroad track, and with +this tumult of the elements the snow was falling in masses which were +caught up and tossed about in the gale until the air was but a white, +swirling, yeasty mass through which nothing could be seen a yard away. +The canyon was filling rapidly and the awful storm showed no sign of +abatement. The passage was not of the narrowest at the place to which +this description refers. The railroad builders had done good work in +what had been little more than a gorge. They had blasted and carried +away after the manner of man who, if resolute enough, must find the way. +He may sweat for it; he may freeze for it, but he attains his end, as he +did in forcing a passage through the vainglorious labyrinths of the +Rockies. So, he had made a road between the towering heights of the +Cleft Mountains. He had done well, but he had left a way so indefensible +that indecent Nature, seeking reprisals, might do almost anything there +in winter. Just now, with the accompanying war-whoop of the roaring +blast, she was building up an enormous buttress across the King's +Highway. The canyon was filled to the depth of many feet, and the +buttress was growing higher every moment. + +And, plunging forward from the West toward this buttress of snow, now +came tearing ahead boisterously the trans-continental train from San +Francisco. Its crew had hoped to get through the pass while yet the +thing was possible. On it came at full speed, the big train, with all +its great weight and tremendous force of impact, and plunged, like a +bull with lowered horns, into the uplifting mountain of snow. It tore +its way forward, resistlessly at first, then more slowly, and slower +still, until, at last, it stopped quiveringly. But it was not beaten +yet. Back it went hundreds of yards and hurled itself a second time into +the growing drift. It made a slight advance, and that was all. Again and +again it charged, but it was useless. Nature had won! Paralyzed and +inefficient, the train lay still. + +Then to the wild clamor of the storm was added another note. The whistle +screamed like a woman. Why it should be sounded at all none but the +engineer could tell--perhaps it was the instinct of a railroad man to +sound the whistle anywhere in an emergency. Speaking the voice of the +train, its cry seemed to be, at first, one of alarm and protest, then, +as the hand on the throttle wavered, one of pleading, until, finally, +beaten and discouraged, it sank sobbingly into silence, awaiting that +first aid for the wounded in the case of railroad trains--the telegraph. + +Upon the trains which must adventure the passes of the Rocky Mountains +in winter are carried all the means for wire-tapping, that communication +may be had with the outside world on any occasion of disaster at a +distance from a station, the climbing spikes, the cutters, tweezers and +leather gloves, and all the kit of a professional line repairer. +Ordinarily, too, some one of the train crew, or a professional +telegrapher, in times of special apprehension is prepared to do the work +of the emergency. This particular train had all the necessary kit, but, +to the alarm of the conductor and engineer and all the train crew, it +was discovered, after they had met in hurried consultation, that while +they had the means, they lacked the man. What was to be done? They must +reach the outside world somehow; they must reach Belden, whence must +come the relief train headed by the huge snow-plow which would +eventually release them. The conductor was a man of action: "It may be," +he said, "it may be that there is some one on the train who can do the +job. It's a mighty doubtful thing, but I'll find out." + +He was a big, red-faced, heavy-moustached man, with a big voice, and he +started promptly on his way, bellowing through each car: + +"Is there anybody here who can cut in on a wire, and telegraph? Is there +anybody here who can cut in on a wire, and telegraph?" + +The strident call aroused everybody as he passed along, but response was +lacking. He became discouraged. As he reached the drawing-room car he +was tempted to abandon the idea. He hesitated, unwilling to disturb the +sleepers in--or rather the occupants of the berths, for the general +tumult outside had awakened them--but pulled himself together and kept +on. He entered the car roaringly as he had the others: + +"Is there anybody here who can cut in on a wire, and telegraph? Is +there anybody here who can cut in on a wire, and telegraph?" + +The curtains of one of the berths were drawn apart, and a head appeared, +the head of a man of about forty years of age with clean-cut features, +distinctly those of a gentleman. There was force in the aquiline nose +and the strong jaw, but the voice was gentle enough when he spoke: + +"I might do it, possibly. What's the matter? Stalled?" + +The conductor was astounded. The drawing-room car was the last place +from which he had expected or hoped assistance, but he answered +promptly: + +"Yes, sir," he said, "we are in a bad way, half buried in a snow +mountain. We've got to reach Belden by wire, but we've no one to make +the connection and send the message. If you can help us it will be a +great thing. I hate to ask you. It's going to be an awful job." + +"Have you got the tools?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, I'll try it." + +John Stafford dressed hurriedly. He emerged, a straight, +broad-shouldered man, possessed apparently of exceptional strength and +vigor, qualities soon to be tested to the utmost. He went forward with +the conductor to the car at the front, in which the trainmen were +assembled. He equipped himself for the work, then, lamp in hand, he +stepped out upon the platform and looked about him. He could see +nothing. + +He was enclosed between walls of white, the substance of which was +revolving, curling and twisting uncannily. What seemed almost the +impenetrable was beside him. All vision was cut off. There was but the +mystery of the filled canyon. And he must venture out into that +sinister, invisible space, find a telegraph pole and climb it and cut +the wire and talk with Belden! The thing was appalling. + +But a resolute and courageous man was John Stafford, civil engineer, and +he had been building railroads in Siberia. He gave swift directions to +the trainmen: + +"Get together and light all the lamps you have and bring them here," he +ordered; "set some of them in this window and hang some of them against +it. I want the brightest beacon I can have. Keep the glass of the window +clean and clear, inside and outside." Then, with a coil of wire about +him, and lamp in hand, he stepped out into that wicked vastness. + +He plunged into snow up to his neck. He realized now more than ever +what was the task he had undertaken. He stamped to clear as well as he +could a little space about him and took his bearings. Practical railroad +man, he had reasoned out his course. He had with him a pocket compass +and upon this alone he relied. He knew the distance from the track to +the telegraph line and knew that by going just so many yards north and +then going directly east or west he would reach a pole. But the distance +he could only estimate, and who could accomplish that feat with any +degree of accuracy under such conditions? + +Then began a fight which must remain a desperate memory with the man +forever. + +Straight north he began his way, plowing, digging, almost burrowing. It +was fearful work, body-distressing, soul-trying. To acquire an added +yard in his progress was a task. Cold as it was, he was perspiring +violently in no time. The snow had begun to pack, and in the slight +depressions, where it was deepest, he had even to heave his chest +against it to force his way. His feet became clogged and heavy. But he +floundered on. He became angry over it all. He would not be beaten! At +last, as he estimated, he reached a point which must lie somewhere in +the line between poles, but he was not sure. He could not judge of +distance, in such a struggle. He lay down in the snow and drew long +breaths and rested until the cold, checking the welling perspiration, +warned him that, if he would live, he must work again. + +Straight east by the compass he started, and there was renewed the same +fierce, exhausting struggle, but this time maintained much longer. He +kept it up until he knew he must have compassed more than half the +distance--all that was required--between two poles, but he could not +find one. The situation was becoming desperate. The lamp gave light for +only a yard ahead, no more, because of the wall of falling snow. Back +and forth he went, almost exhausted now, his heart thumping, his breath +exhausted. And then, just as he was about to lie down again to a rest +which would have been more than dangerous, he stumbled upon a telegraph +pole. It was but fortune. + +Stafford's strength returned with the finding of the pole. He would at +least accomplish what he sought to do! He rested long against the pole +and then began the ascent. Everything was easy now. The work in hand was +nothing compared with the battle in the drift. He cut in on the wire, +made the connection, talked with Belden and got assurance of instant +gathering of every force at command there for the rescue. The relief +train would start at once. There is sympathy and understanding and swift +aid where they have learned to know the perils of the passes. + +Stafford came down the pole at ease. Everything was all right now. All +he had to do was to go back to the train and rest. He would follow his +back track. He looked for it, but there was no back track! The densely +falling snow had obliterated it completely. He fell back upon the +compass again, and all the desperate work was but repeated. He was +becoming faint and thoroughly exhausted now. He looked for the beacon +light in the window but he might as well have tried to look through a +stone wall. He feared his case was hopeless, but he did not flinch nor +lose his courage. He sat down in the snow, unable for the moment to go +further, and shouted with all the force of which his strained lungs were +capable, but, at first, with no result. At last he thought he heard an +answering call, and later he was assured of it. That revived him. He got +upon his feet again and stumbled forward, following the direction of the +sound. Two forms appeared beside him suddenly. They were those of the +conductor and engineer. He was taken by each arm, and, staggering +between the two, was lifted into the car. He was approaching a state of +entire collapse, but brandy stimulated him into ability to tell of what +he had accomplished. The trainmen were more than grateful. They removed +his outer clothing, and, half-carrying him to his berth, left him there +enveloped in a warm blanket. He was oblivious to all things in a moment, +sleeping the sleep of utter exhaustion. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A MAN + + +Weary of fighting off thoughts, tired with the insistent intrusions of +memory, John Stafford, who had awakened refreshed and himself again, +leaned back in his seat and gave himself up to the bitter-sweet of the +home-coming after long absence. Landing from the steamer in San +Francisco, Stafford had still felt himself to be in a strange country, +though the people proclaimed themselves Americans of the Americans in +every look and turn and voice. But the blue sky and the blue bay, the +mountains and the outdoor life of the people, gave Stafford still the +feeling that he was yet in a foreign land, as he had been for five years +or more. + +He had not counted the time from the first six weeks after his departure +from America. + +Across mountains, deserts, prairies, plains and rolling hills with +peopled cities in their sheltering folds, Stafford held his way toward +the East. He hardly knew his destination. To New York, or to stop to the +central whirlpool of life in America where goes most of what is from +the West toward the outer edges of the roaring market place of the +Indian name, built where the sluggish river flows, juggled by the hand +of man out of the great inland Sea of Michigan into the Mississippi +Valley, where it originally belonged. To one of the two cities he was +indifferently bound. + +Now, with eyes closed, and lips firmly and perhaps grimly set, Stafford +looked the past in the face, and speculated as to the future. To him it +was all undetermined. He could give it no continuous thought, for the +past kept haunting him, as it had, more and more, with every mile on the +way from the Pacific Coast. + +His had been one of the tragedies of life and love. A strong man, +upright, conscientious, brilliant and familiar with social risks, he had +yet fallen in love with a married woman, the wife of a brute, an animal +unsuited to her in every way, but still the wife. + +It had been a love as wonderful as it was blameless. The two had met, +and had involuntarily, by the mere force of a natural gravitation, been +drawn toward each other, and, since they fitted, the inevitable had +taken place. The very fibres of their souls had intertwined. It was the +story, old as time, of love barred by the law which men have made for +good, a story the material for which exists in all lands and among all +races, in all climates and under all conditions, whether it be where +gather the softest of the lazy mists which float beneath the palms of +the Equator or as near the North Pole as the musk ox browses. The woman +unrighteously married and the man unmarried--or the reverse--will come +together. Like wire of gold through armorer's bronze, a perfect +cloisonne, will come, sometimes, the close relationship. And, where is +the fault of loving involuntarily, helplessly, but sinning not at all? +Nature is God's and has her paths, and Love is but the index finger of +the two. + +But John Stafford and Mary Eversham were not of the sort to violate the +conscience by yielding to fond desire. The right was first with this +splendid man and woman. One sweet privilege they allowed themselves, +that of a full confession to each other of all that was in their hearts, +and then they separated, he to seek in Russia such forgetfulness as +strenuous work might bring, she to bear patiently the weight of a barren +life. Now he had fought his fight in the frigid Northern Orient, and +had returned, a winning American, but objectless and restless. + +The man musing there gloomily at last aroused himself: "I'll think no +more," he muttered; "I'll exhibit a little common sense;" and he devoted +his attention to what was going on about him. + +The storm had passed. As morning neared, it lessened somewhat in its +force, and when daylight came, opaque and dim, it ended suddenly. The +blizzard groaned and then dropped into nothingness. + +It was a curious and impressive sight which was afforded those on the +train as they streamed out and massed themselves upon the platforms--for +those in the sleepers dressed hurriedly and came out only a little later +than the occupants of the other cars, who had slight dressing to do--and +it was a sight in no degree encouraging. About them was but an endless +reach of dead, unenlivened dreary white, the dull white of a tombstone, +and they knew that they were the helpless prisoners of this solitude. +They were appalled. It affected them all, though differently, according +to their character. + +Food for days they had, certainly, and heat for the present. This was on +the credit side. On the other side were a variety of threatening +possibilities. Weak people have died in snowbound trains. Should they be +imprisoned for long there would be no heat, and the cold in the +mountains is something that seeks the very marrow. Such cold they might +have to endure. Some one spoke shudderingly of a singular death caused +by this bitter enemy in a train stalled years before not far from the +place where they were now almost entombed, for the canyons in the rear +were filled by this time and by no possibility could the train be moved +in one direction or another. The story was that of the death of a +wonderful little personage who, though nearly thirty years of age, was +only thirty inches in height, most famous of dwarfs, the Mexican woman, +Lucia Zerete. Wrap her warmly as they would, they could not save her. +The frost permeated her slight body and she died upon the unheated +train. The allusion brought a shudder. That awful frost in the air seeks +all humanity within its limits, and then, for the more fragile, the +world may no longer be going round. + +The sky lightened gradually, and toward noon the clouds broke so that +the sun shone for a brief space, but there came no real brightness. The +sun did his best, but it was little. He was trying to send his rays to +the depths of the canyon, but was not succeeding very well. He is +admirable at straight work, this luminary who gives us heat and light +and life--but when it comes to giving quality to rays which have to be +again reflected, he is only moderately efficient. The sides of the +canyon laughed at him. "You may lighten and heat our enclosed depths +somewhat," they said, "but you cannot give to the canyon the real +sunshine. You may be lord of our solar system, but we upheaving rocks of +this particular region of this particular planet can temper your force +beyond all reason!" + +Incidents enough were occurring in Stafford's car. The porter, +apparently a white man, and a blonde, was just ushering in a forlorn +company of wayside travelers, and gave them seats in the vacant places, +of which there were not a few, for travel was light on the line, these +short February days of the year when the "Great Storm" burst, not here +alone, but, later, upon the Atlantic States, and played with men and all +their work for a day and a night, giving to the human pigmy a terrifying +lesson of his own insignificance when the forces of Nature take hold in +earnest to shake and tumble into fragments the cherished works of her +ordinarily spoiled darling, Man. + +"This car has the best accommodations, and so they are bringing the way +passengers in here," the Porter explained, as he strove to make +comfortable a tearful woman, whose whole being seemed to be absorbed in +the effort to make the world know that she had left her two children +alone at home, while she made the five-mile journey by rail to the +nearest town, and back, to buy some family stores, the nature, price and +quantity of which she was by no means loth to describe in detail. + +"I meant to take the 'commodation," she repeated to whomsoever listened +to her, "but the 'commodation didn't come, and they put me on the +express, and I thought it was fine to ride on the through passenger, +that never stops at our station, but I've got enough of the express, +stuck all this time in the snow, and there are my poor children locked +up at home." + +The men fidgeted in their seats, and the women, one or two of them, went +to the wayside passenger and gave her the aid, comfort and support of +listening to her, as the one form of consolation possible. By no means +alone was the woman in her murmurings. There were others quite as +querulous and restless, particularly one man, a stormy mountain +character, who was a storekeeper in the town where the complaining woman +lived, and who announced that he must get home somehow and at once. The +day passed miserably. The prisoners had not yet settled down into a +patient acquiescence with what was. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +JOHN LIPSKY'S SIGN + + +After supper, Stafford, feeling clamorously the need of a cigar, +strolled back into the smoking compartment. It was already well filled, +among the occupants being a Colonel Livingstone, a genial character with +whom Stafford had already become acquainted. He was greeted warmly and +seated himself to engage idly in the desultory conversation which was +going on. + +"I wonder what breed of Indians once inhabited this region?" queried one +of the smokers. "They must have had poor picking." + +"I don't know," said the colonel, "Apaches, I imagine." + +A drawling voice broke in, the owner of which was a young man, a person +of such self-confidence, nerve and general up-to-dateness, that Stafford +whimsically christened him "The Gallus Youth." + +"I know an Indian story which is true," said the Gallus Youth. "Do you +want me to tell it?" + +There was a general assent, the smokers subsided comfortably in their +seats, and from clouds of smoke the voice proceeded, the whole group +listening, or at least, if not listening, keeping silence: + + JOHN LIPSKY'S SIGN + +Probably nothing more strange and puzzling has ever happened, either in +a great city or in the country, than what is to be told of here, and +which relates to both. + +When John Lipsky bought the small barber shop on South Clark street it +occurred to him that he might increase his receipts a trifle by putting +in a modest show-case containing cigars and cigarettes and tobacco; for +Lipsky, while a man with no vices, has a large family to support and is +compelled not only to economize but to devise all means for adding to +the defenses against the wolf at the door. When he bought the barber +shop, which contained only two chairs, he was forced to make the +investment on credit, as was also the case with the cigar and tobacco +outfit. He was forced also to make certain repairs inside the shop, and +found himself then without money and with a business not yet +established, while the little Lipskys kept on eating and wearing out +clothes. He could not afford a barber's pole, though the stripes +painted on the door jamb had practically disappeared under the influence +of wind and weather, and, at the same time, put out a sign to make it +known to passers-by that he had cigars for sale. He might afford one of +the signs, but, assuredly, not both. Then to thrifty John Lipsky came a +sudden inspiration. Why not combine the signs in one? + +And here comes in what seems a key and yet may not be a key to +happenings too remarkable for belief. + +Oswald Shornstein is a sculptor working in a great establishment on the +West Side. His specialty in the sculptor's art is the making of wooden +Indians. Shornstein's vacation last summer was spent in Wisconsin, where +he spent much of his idling time in the vicinity of an Indian settlement +near Green Bay. He formed the acquaintance of a prominent member of the +dwindling tribe, a tough old hunter known as Keeshamok--which, +translated, means "Bounding Bear"--and they were often together, fishing +and smoking and loafing throughout the pleasant summer days. When +Shornstein returned to town he entertained a feeling of decided +friendship for the lazy but interesting Winnebago. + +The sculptor's vacation had done him good, and he plunged with vigor +into his work again, the more so because the supply of wooden Indians at +the time was hardly equal to the demand, and within a week he had +produced a masterpiece. + +Shornstein had genius, but, in this case, genius had an inspiration. +Ordinarily Shornstein made just an Indian, but now it was different. It +was a particular Indian which came forth from the wood in response to +his practised handiwork. Fresh in the mind of the artist were the face +and figure of the swarthy Keeshamok, and, almost unconsciously, he +reproduced them. The work was done. There upon his pedestal stood +Keeshamok of the Winnebagos! + +Meanwhile what of Lipsky? He had resolved to advertise shop and cigars +at one fell swoop; he would buy a wooden Indian and have him painted +gloriously in colored spiral stripes from head to heel! He carried out +his idea promptly and fate ordained it that the wooden Indian bought by +Lipsky was the image of the Winnebago, Keeshamok. It was painted +according to the barber's wildest design, and never was seen such a sign +before! Holy Moses! It would have scared a wolverine! Lipsky had been +wiser than he knew. From failure he had plucked success. The terrifying +sign brought curious customers in scores; cigars sold rapidly and the +business of the barber shop required at once another chair. + +Meanwhile had come November and hunting was good in the Wisconsin woods. +The Indians were alert. Keeshamok and a companion one day killed a deer +and dragged it to the nearest village, where they made a sale. They +staggered forth at dusk each whooping gutturally but joyously, and each +carrying a mighty jug. They took the forest path for camp and pursued it +weavingly but far, until, at last, Keeshamok, somewhat the drunker, +proposed a camp upon the spot and consumption of firewater all through +the deepening night. His companion refused and left him to his own +devices. + +Obtruding almost into the roadway projected the end of a mighty hollow +log lying beneath a mountain of smaller logs and brush, and to Keeshamok +came, as he stood there undecided, a novel vision of beatitude. There +were warmth and shelter. He would creep into the log, and there, with +his jug to comfort him, pass such a night as Indian never passed before! +He acted on the glorious impulse. + +He crawled far in and stretched himself out upon the soft, dry flakes +of rotten wood and took deep draughts of whisky and defied the outside +world! It was a solitary but a grand debauch. The hours passed and the +Indian became almost torpid. He slept a little. The cold intensified and +he awoke and drank again, but was still cold. He comprehended but dimly, +yet another idea came to him. He would build a little fire and that +would warm him! He scraped together a mound of the dry debris beyond +him, and, after many efforts, got a match alight and applied it to the +heap, which blazed at once. It warmed him. He took another drink and lay +down again and slept. + +There appeared next morning beside the wood road a vast gray patch of +surface upon which could be seen no object larger than a hand. The ashes +of the great hollow tree and of the dead trees upon it were sifting +through the forest with every wind, and with them were blown the ashes +of the Indian Keeshamok. He had no body! + +That night something happened in South Clark Street in Chicago, +something so inexplicable and startling as to pass beyond the realm of +credibility. At precisely midnight, the striped Indian in front of +Lipsky's barber-shop stepped from his pedestal and fled northward, +without a sound. So silent and so swift his flight that those whom he +met or passed felt, rather than saw, a flitting thing. The city was left +behind and still northward across the frozen fields and through the +woods he went. The medicine moccasins of Hiawatha never carried one more +wondrously. The farms and forests of far Wisconsin were reached at last +and faded by, and at last before the runner's eyes appeared the cabins +of his kinsmen. What life came to him now! He bounded upward in +exaltation! He burst in among the clustered habitations with the wild +piercing whoop of the returning warrior! + +"Owannox! wah quah-quah! Kinniwa! Wow, wow, wanny-wanny-Yook! Ek-ek! +Laroo!" + +Cabin doors burst open, dogs rushed forth, men and squaws dashed out and +all was wild commotion. The voice of Keeshamok had been recognized on +the instant. He leaped in among his people joyfully. + +Then arose such yells and shrieks as made the very woodland quiver! +There was a rush for cabins whose doors were closed and barred within a +minute's space. The very dogs, yelping with every leap, fled to the +forest. Even they were appalled and recognized but as a spectre the +missing Keeshamok. Within the Indian village all was frightful silence. + +With bowed head stood the striped wooden Indian in the midst of the +cabins. Then he turned his face toward the south and the silent run +began again. In the morning he stood once more upon his pedestal in +front of Lipsky's barber shop. + +How can it be accounted for? What psychologist or scientist can explain +it? The spirit of Keeshamok lacks, of course, the usual form in which to +reappear and do any haunting anywhere, for good or evil, since his body +was consumed entirely. Does it seek the marvelous imitation made by +Shornstein as the only substitute? Who, indeed, shall say? There are +many things unknown to us. + +And still, each night, the striped Indian runs his futile race and makes +his sad return. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE + + +Daybreak of the second day of imprisonment brought no renewal of the +storm, though the sun was hidden and the clouds were dark and lowering. +But the morning was to have its tragedy. + +The storekeeper who had got on at the station five miles back seemed +half demented. He had chafed and grumbled loudly from the first, +asserting that his business would be ruined without his immediate +presence and attention, and heaping imprecations upon the weather and +the railroad company alike. Patience or philosophy seemed entirely +lacking in his character. All through the first day of detention he had +paced restlessly back and forth throughout the train, a walking +expletive, and now he had become furious. + +"I must get home," he shouted; "I live only five miles down the track +and I'm going to walk it. I know these blizzards, and I'm bigger than +any of 'em! I can make it!" and he would have leaped from the train at +once had not strong hands restrained him. He went forward mutteringly. + +The stillness of all the world about had something to it sinister and +threatening. It was like the silence of a graveyard. "I'd rather have +that storm howling again, and howling worse than ever," said one of the +passengers, "than endure this ghastly quiet. It's altogether too quiet. +Something is going to happen!" + +He was right. Something was going to happen. The dark clouds were +sinking nearer and nearer to the earth, and at last there came a sound, +the faintest of sighs, of the coming wind. It deepened steadily until it +became more than a sigh; it was a moan. It increased in volume. The moan +became a shriek, the shriek a mighty roar, and the blizzard, with its +snowfall, was raging about the pass again. + +The passengers crowded together at the windows and a few of the more +hardy even ventured out upon the platforms to enjoy, or to become +apprehensive over, the mighty spectacle. + +They were thus engaged when there came rushing excitedly into the car +the pert youth who had told the remarkable Indian story the night +before. + +"The Storekeeper!" he exclaimed. "The Storekeeper is missing! He must +have left the train!" + +[Illustration: "THE STOREKEEPER!" HE EXCLAIMED] + +There was aroused a sudden and alarmed interest, followed by a hurrying +of men to the different platforms, but there was nothing to be seen. The +man must have slipped from the train, unobserved, before the recurrence +of the storm and made the desperate attempt to reach his home by the +exercise of sheer bulldog tenacity and brute force, in struggling +through the enormous drifts. Stafford, accompanied by two of the +trainmen, made a brief but arduous and difficult search for some +distance, but found slight trace of the missing passenger. Close beside +the train they discovered where he had leaped off and staggered +uncertainly forward, but beyond that there was no sign. The snow had +already hidden the reckless being's trail. + +There was a sequel, long in coming. Late in the following spring, when +the looming drifts of the pass had melted, the mortal part of the +Storekeeper was found some distance from the track, where he had +stumbled blindly in his wanderings. But of his fate there could, of +course, at this time, be no certain knowledge. There was even a chance, +some thought, that he might accomplish the seemingly impossible. The +men muttered to each other, and that was all. Why the Storekeeper, +apparently one possessed of shrewdness at least, should have taken such +awful risk no one could say--but it made swift tragedy. + +Communication had been maintained with Belden. A path to the telegraph +pole utilized by Stafford on the night of the stoppage had been +laboriously dug by the trainmen and Stafford had again made the +connection and learned the condition of affairs with the rescuing party +already started. The report was not altogether encouraging. The vast +fall of snow in the canyon, drifted, in some places, higher than the top +of the smokestack of the locomotive--for this was the greatest blockade +in the history of the road--had proved more than baffling, even with the +snow-plow. Scores of men were at work ahead of it with shovels, in the +work of bringing the clearance within the range of its capability. The +relief train was yet many miles from the one entirely helpless. Still +the snow would not be so deep at points ahead, where the canyon widened, +and the belief of the rescuers was that the half-entombed would be +reached at some hour of the fourth day of their detention. The news was +not received with any degree of exultation. + +It was at this crisis that Moses appeared to lead those in the Cassowary +and their visitors out of the gloom oppressing them. + +When men and women of intelligence and brightness and modern perception +are cast together in an emergency, there ever appears among them some +one who brings the group close together. He may not be the greatest of +the group, but he has some dominant instinct in him involving a regard +for the comfort of others. Such a man was Colonel Livingston. + +The Colonel was a man of thought, and he wanted his own sort of people +around him. He had raised a regiment once, when fierce things were going +on in the "60's," and he knew how to gather men. He had ranged through +the train, like some good-naturedly overbearing Lord High Commissioner +selecting those whose appearance most appealed to him and, because of +his keen acumen and genial approachment, had captured easily and brought +into the Cassowary those whom he thought would swing best into being a +healthful and merry part of the fraction of humanity enduring temporary +distress. He had an idea. + +The occupants of the Cassowary included a number of the more than +ordinarily intelligent and cultivated--as would naturally be the case in +such a car and on such an extended trip--and all had, by this time, +become more or less acquainted, though all had not, like the Colonel, +acquired the fancy of addressing others by the title of their +occupation. It was to such a group as this that the Colonel, standing at +one end of the car, addressed himself: + +"I'm afraid that we are flunking a little. I know--I feel it in my +bones--that we are going to escape from this cold dilemma without any +serious consequence, but we shall not be a credit to ourselves if we +falter in the interval. Let us avoid depression. Let us enliven the +situation as much as possible. To such end I have a suggestion to make +in this connection which, I hope, may be well received. Last night I was +much interested in a story told by the buoyant and blithesome young +gentleman occupying the end seat on the left side there"--and he +indicated the "Gallus Youth"--"and it has come to my mind since that we +may greatly relieve the monotony of our case by doing what we do in the +smoking compartment, that is, by telling stories. If you consent, I +will modestly offer myself as a sort of master of ceremonies. Does the +idea meet with any degree of approval?" + +There was no dissent, but, instead, a hearty agreement to the +proposition, the Colonel's cheery manner having its effect on everybody. +For a time, though, the story-telling did not begin. + +There was need, certainly, for any and all suggestions as to means for +ameliorating in any degree a situation the grimness of which was +beginning to force itself upon even the most optimistic of the company. +The wind, even when it lowered its tone for a moment, growled ominously. + +"It is awful," moaned the woman with the baby. "I wonder how God can let +such things happen. I wonder if praying would help?" + +Then followed--it could hardly be otherwise with such a +company--reverent but earnest discussion of the question of whether or +not Providence ever really intervened in special cases, as a result of +special supplication. Varying opinions were expressed, the majority, +even the most seemingly devout, inclining to the belief that the answer +to the question was beyond the knowledge accorded to humanity. It was +the Colonel's opportunity. He appealed to the Minister, who had listened +to the discussion with a thoughtful smile upon his kindly face, but who +had not given an opinion. + +"Do you believe in special providences, sir?" he asked. "Can you relate +a single instance in your experience, or one of which you have heard, +from a reliable source, where there has been the manifestation of what +we call 'a special providence,' in direct answer to prayer?" + +"I cannot answer your question," was the Minister's reply. "I cannot +answer the first part of the query, because I am undecided, and I cannot +answer the second because the same reasoning would, in a way, apply, +since I am not entirely assured of certain earthly facts. But," and +there was a twinkle in the reverend gentleman's eyes, "I heard a curious +story once, for the exact truth of which I will by no means vouch, which +I will tell in the narrator's own words, and which, supposing it to be +true, might be looked upon as either for or against the doctrine of + + A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE + +Just who are the "salt of the earth" is a disputable question. The title +belongs traditionally to a group of that splendid race--the Jews. But +it is claimed, also, and on seemingly excellent grounds, by other +groups, including a large number of the people of Iowa. Appearances are +in their favor, for Iowa was settled by a fine lot of men and women, and +their children have not deteriorated. + +They were excellent pioneers who came to cross the great river and make +a new State, to cut away the forest where it was too dense, to plant +trees where the prairie-planted farm-houses and barns needed shelter +from wintry blasts, to import cattle, and horses, and sheep, and hogs +with blood in them, and to repeat the old exploit of the dominating race +in making, somewhere, the desert blossom as the rose. About what is +Maxonville alighted one of the groups of men and women, settling down +like wild geese upon an area of fertile and well-watered land. +Maxonville was not much in evidence when they came, these strong men and +women, for only "Old Man" Maxon was living at the forks where the big +creek found the little river; but they all settled about, and there were +built new homes close to Maxon's, and there came, as the years passed, a +church, and a schoolhouse, and a grocery and dry goods store, and, in +time, the prosperous town. The farmers round about prospered, for they +had thrift and intelligence and something of the old Covenanters' +spirit. + +The church Maxonville built, offhand and ready for all its uses before +they had a preacher, was a pride to the sturdy men and believing women, +and when the preacher came to them from the East they were more +satisfied than ever. + +There may be something in lonely farm work making one a grim adherent of +straight creed. Down behind horses and plow all day long, with only the +great blue sky of God above, and only a view of the same sky meeting a +green horizon far away and all around; inclosed in this great vault of +blue and green, and left alone with one's thoughts, it may be that the +eternal problem becomes more earnestly considered, more a part of all +the thought and life of a human being than it is to the man of the city, +who has his attention distracted every moment from the great, +overwhelming presence and pressure. Such effects crystallize. The people +of Maxonville and its vicinity were sternly devout--that is, most of +them--and their new minister was a fit exponent of their creed. + +The minister was tall, dark-haired, clean-shaven, and with brown eyes +which were keen, chiefly, in looking into himself. He had a stern, +well-defined mission in religious teaching--as earnest as Ignatius +Loyola, stubborn as Oliver Cromwell. He had been through college, and +then through one of the strictest of theological schools. He was fit to +preach, he felt, as far as mere acquirement of having learned the ways +of other preachers; but he knew that the ideas of the world were +changing, and that if the world were changing God must be doing it, and +so he was at times perplexed. But he came to his little land of prairie +flowers, and steer-raising, and honest obstinacy, a fit man for the +place. And they said they had a preacher! + +It is doubtful if any village of three hundred people in the United +States, from Montpelier to San Diego, from Portland to St. John, has not +one pretty girl or more. Maxonville had a number of pretty girls, and +one of them was more than pretty; she was beautiful. + +Deacon Conant was the leading man of the church of the new town. He was +a man who had succeeded, because of brains and energy, in managing his +two or three farms, but he does not figure in this account save that he +was the father of Jane Conant. His blood had gone into her, and it was +pretty good blood, too. The preacher had fallen in love with her and she +with him. Preachers and girls would not be good for much if they did not +do that sort of thing occasionally. + +Here was an ideal relation of things, or what should have been an ideal +one. What could have been finer than that there should have come into a +growing town in a growing region a stalwart, almost fanatical builder-up +of faith, who should find a fitting partner in the daughter of the chief +man of the locality, and that from the union so buttressed all around +should come great results? There was but one obstacle in the way of this +perfect combination, and the obstacle was in the woman. It is +astonishing how women will nibble at apples and learn things, from Eve +down! This particular young woman had graduated from one of the most +cleverly conducted of Eastern colleges for girls, and she had views. Not +only did she have views, but she had views in the face of her religious +teacher, of the man whom she respected for his earnestness and loved for +himself. They were intensely happy for a while after their +engagement--as becomes strong souls getting close together in such +relationship--but with nearer relationship came necessarily more +vehement and unguarded interchange of thought, and--sad the day!--they +differed seriously, upon a matter of belief. + +A part of the belief of John Elwell, the preacher, was an implicit +confidence in the manifestation at times of what we call a "special +providence." One of the ideas of the young woman, deeply religious +though she was, was an utter disbelief in this same thing--that is, a +disbelief that God sometimes makes an exception, and, instead of working +through the laws of the Nature which He has instituted, produces a +direct result having the quality of what we are accustomed to call a +miracle. + +The two discussed the matter together very often after they came close +together, as lovers may. The first time they debated there came a little +wedge between them as thin as tissue paper abraded to an end. Next time +the wedge grew larger, and where it ended there was a cleft reaching +down to anywhere. The third time there was a split broad and well +defined, and the engagement was broken. + +"My dear, I do believe in special providences; I do believe that earnest +prayer will bring results in certain cases, justifiable in themselves." + +"I do not." + +"Why?" + +"Because I believe that the whole thing--and I am only a girl talking, I +don't know what you call it--is just a belief and taken on trust. What +would you think of going down to the mill there and praying the miller +to make one bag of flour coarse in the midst of all his business? The +miller is giving us bread for our physical life, and he knows best how +to do it, at least as compared with the rest of us. I know that this is +all a poor simile, a poor comparison, but I can't help it." + +Now, even an earnest preacher is human, and a great many girls--though +the healthy among us call them angels--are human. The engagement between +the two was at this juncture broken off so squarely that the ends +weren't even ragged, though there was left a possible sequence, not +altogether black as midnight--a vague hope in the heart of each that the +future might have something to it. This brought a few words more before +they parted. + +Said the girl: "Show me a case of special providence and I will believe +with you. It must be--it cannot possibly be otherwise--than that there +should in some way, somehow, come an opportunity for showing that you +are right and I wrong." + +The pale-faced man's eyes were burning as he looked at her. + +"The day will come!" he said. + +Time passed and the two worked together in social and church relations, +but there was no more talk of marriage. It was one day in mid-July, a +year after the conversation just described, when John Elwell was talking +earnestly from his pulpit, and Jane Conant was one of the congregation. + +The preacher talked well that day--there is no denying it. He talked in +a simple, straightforward but wonderfully eloquent way of how the +quality of one's relation to others in this world must make easy or +uneasy the path toward what is the better habitation after death. He +told of the duties of the successful to the unsuccessful, of the strong +to the weak; and he told too, of how, even in this world, each man's +mind is accuser or justifier, and how, even in this world, come rewards +and punishments, and how to him with faith enough should come immediate +returns. With glowing face he even went aside a little to speak of those +who talk too much of Nature and the Universe, and who believe that a +general scheme is as true and strong and believable as one more +definite--"'He noteth the sparrow's fall,'" he said. + +It was sultry within the church, and all seemed lifeless, though hearts +were beating rapidly under the preacher's eloquence. There seemed no +oxygen in the air; all was oppressive. There was no sound as the speaker +closed a long and telling sentence, save the slight "swish" as a locust +alighted on the sill of an open window. There was sound enough a moment +later. + +Through the open doorway leaped a young man who shouted but one word: + +"Cyclone!" + +At the exclamation breaking in thus on the religious stillness perhaps +one-fourth of the congregation started to their feet and rushed into the +open air, but the three-fourths remained in their seats as if paralyzed. +The preacher paused, looked about, and then with almost shining face +spoke solemnly: + +"My friends, we are threatened with one of the visitations which God +sometimes decrees, but which, it is my earnest belief, cannot harm those +who believe in Him rightly and appeal to Him most trustingly. Let us +pray that the cyclone will avoid this church." + +They knelt together, preacher and congregation, and strong and trustful +and appealing was the pastor's prayer. His clear voice did not falter in +the eloquent appeal, and those who knelt felt confidence and a glorified +pride in the attitude taken in an awful hour. Men came rushing to the +doorway crying aloud upon all within to make the attempt at escape to a +safer place, but there was no response, no sound save that of the +preacher's uplifted voice. There was a roar and rumble in the far +southwest and a half darkness was approaching. As the sound outside +increased, the voice of the preacher became less audible, but the +spellbound and trusting congregation did not move. Among the women was +still Jane Conant. + +The rumble became a roar, the roar an ear-splitting, paralyzing blast, +and then--chaos! In blackness, with its steeple, its roof, its whole +upper part torn away and leaving but an uncovered brick rectangle, ten +or fifteen feet in height, remained what was of the church in +Maxonville. With the blackness came a torrent; the interior of the +rectangle became a flooded space, within which area men and women waded, +and floundered and shouted, and shrieked, and felt for each other, and +feared, almost, that the world was ended. Then gradually, the flood +ceased, and daylight came again, and the drenched creatures within what +was left of the church--by what seemed a miracle there had been none +injured--emerged upon the greenery about. Among them was the preacher. +He spoke to no one. He had worn a straw hat when he came to the church, +and had found it somehow. It had been wetted and crushed, and now hung +down on each side of his head grotesquely. He was a sodden, queer +creature who looked neither to the right nor to the left. But there was +thought in him still. He lifted his face to Heaven, and thanked God that +all had been preserved, but said no other word. He walked drippingly +along the sidewalk and then turned down a lane which led into the +country. + +Barely one-fourth of a mile--estimated conventionally as the crow +flies--from the town of Maxonville was the farm of John Dent. It was not +a large farm; it was, in fact, but a quarter of a quarter-section, +which means forty acres; but acres have nothing to do with ideas. John +Dent, though he had only a little farm, worked hard and lived reasonably +well, and had a standing, and knew the preacher well, and debated one +important question with him frequently. It was this same question of +special providence, and the attitude of John Dent was, though in a man's +way, identical with that of Jane Conant, the preacher's lost sweetheart. +The preacher wondered at this sometimes. He wondered how it was that +this gifted girl and this obstinate, deep-thinking farmer should so +chance to decide alike. Of course all this was before the cyclone. + +Down at the bottom of his heart John Dent was a little sentimental. His +father and mother had come to the small farm before him. They were dead +now, as well as certain sisters and brothers, and they were buried in a +little private graveyard on the farm, around which the beeches grew +thickly and from which the ground sloped gently into a laughing creek. +There was not much surplus left at the end of each year of the product +of John Dent's farming, and the surplus had more channels for immediate +and demanding distribution than it could supply, still John Dent +thought that some day he would put up a neat little brick monument in +that graveyard--a somewhat unusual form of monument--but that was Dent's +idea. He was going to have a pyramidical thing about fifty feet high. +The spire of the church at Maxonville was of brick, hollow of course, +welded solidly in its weather-hardened cement, as if it were a monolith +of stone. + +The cyclone had passed. A preacher had gone down a lane thinking the +thoughts which come to a clean Christian man in a surprising and +dispiriting emergency. A fair young woman had gone home crying over what +was where her heart was, and Mr. John Dent had seen a cyclone come and +miss his place by about forty rods, and had also seen an out-flinging +and eccentric wing of that same cyclone deposit, just in the proper +place in the burying-ground of his family, a perfect pyramid monument, +such as he had been dreaming of for the last quarter of a century. It +was all queer and out of the common, and was hard to explain; it is not +attempted here, for this is only the story of what happened within an +hour or two on a certain afternoon in Iowa. + +This is going back to the preacher. He walked fast and he walked far, +and found himself deep in the country. He was at least honest in all he +thought; he was a good man, yet he was troubled to the depths of his +being. "I have prayed to God," he said to himself, "and He has refused +me. The cyclone didn't turn away from the church! Is the woman I love +right, and am I wrong? Is there a broader and greater scheme of being +wherein I should be a trusting and unquestioning instrument rather than +one who demands as a special suppliant? I will see Jane," he said in his +great strait. "I feel that she may aid me." + +He met the woman that night; he went to her house and found her there, +and found, too, that as she was, being a dear woman, she had just then +but vague views either on special providences or anything else in +particular, all being absorbed in anxiety as to his own health and +welfare. She was but a loving, frightened creature, harried over what +might have happened to the man who through all the months of silence and +separation had been all there was in the world to her. He had come half +intending to admit himself all in error, but soon all had been lost in +the mere performance of a man and a woman blending. And the evening +passed. Then when the next day came, the two, now understanding, walked +out into the country. + +It was in that wonderful hour of the summer sunset, when all the world +is filled with light and the heavens are tinted with opalescent colors +from an unseen source, and some vagrant vesper sparrow is still singing, +that John Elwell and Jane Conant stood in John Dent's little family +graveyard, looking soberly at the transplanted church steeple. It stood +there, its base ranged plumb east and west, north and south, as if +calculated with all the niceties of the Ancient Order; at its foot the +quiet grass-grown graves, while all around stretched clover meadows and +the cornfields. + +"I feel like borrowing a phrase from the Mohammedans," said the +minister, "or just the beginning of one, then saying no more: 'God is +great!'" + +The girl's summer bonnet hung back over her shoulders, its pink strings +loosely tied under her chin. She looked comprehendingly at the minister, +but she said nothing. + +"I have been narrow," continued the minister, "but God is great." + +Coming across the clover field they saw John Dent, and the two went to +the white picket fence around the graveyard, which he had built and +cared for, and stood at its little gate to meet him. + +"Mr. Dent," said the minister, when he had shaken the farmer's hand, and +as they all turned to look at the steeple top, "I have had a lesson, and +I must acknowledge that it was needed. Our vision is limited, and we +often know not even how to pray! I am content to leave all to God, nor +to wrestle for His special interposition in my behalf. The doctrine of +special providences is presuming--of the earth, earthy. I see that now." + +"Well, I don't know," said John Dent; "I didn't exactly pray for it, but +I've always wanted a monument to my folks here. Sometimes I thought it +was vain and worldly minded in me, but I couldn't give it up. I wanted +that monument just about as high as the end of the steeple stands, just +about that shape, too, more than anything in this world. I couldn't see +my way clear to getting it. I couldn't afford to build one--and here it +is! I don't know as I quite agree with you now parson, concerning +special providences!" + +It was just before the conclusion of the Minister's story that a lady +entered quietly from the next sleeping car and was welcomed to the +coterie by two or three of the ladies, who had, evidently, met her. +Stafford looked in her direction and their eyes met. Then, all the world +changed! + +They knew each other on the instant, but beyond the slightest of +inclinations of their heads, there was no sign of recognition. There was +no smile. There was but an almost startled look which changed into one +of comprehension and then of the ready trust which was of the past. What +message that lingering mutual glance conveyed neither could have told +entirely--it was doubtful, hopeful, appealing, understanding. + +As the minister ceased talking, and comment began, Stafford rose and +made his way toward the new arrival. He had but neared her when Mrs. +Livingston took him by the arm: + +"Have you met Mrs. Eversham yet, Mr. Stafford?" + +They clasped hands, and his head swam, it seemed to him: "I did not know +that you were on the train," he said. + +"I have been slightly ill," she answered gently, "and have been confined +to my stateroom most of the time since leaving San Francisco, but I am +well again. It is good to be out." + +Then their attention was demanded by others and they were separated. +But, what a flavor to the world now! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE FAR AWAY LADY + + +They called her the "Far Away Lady"--those on the train who had already +met her. Just why the name was bestowed by some one with imagination and +aptness of expression or why it had been so readily adopted by the +others, perhaps none could have clearly told, but it had its fitness. +There was a certain soft dignity and reserve of manner and a "far away" +look in the eyes of this stately, but certainly loveable human being. +She possessed the subtle distinction there is to women of a certain +sort, impressing those about her in spite of themselves, as years +before, she had impressed John Stafford. As has been told he knew her on +the moment, yet in their words was nothing, and, even as they met, they +had not looked into each other's eyes unless, it may be, with a +hungering furtiveness and a dizziness at the marvel of the meeting. + +It is hard to describe the Far Away Lady. Her face was exquisite in its +pure womanliness, but in its expression was something which told of a +life unfilled. It was not a protest; it was too good for that, but it +seemed to suggest with this woman a bewildered resignation. The face was +one which, in other times, might, before the end, have been turned +toward and found the cloister. Yet there was all of modern living and +appreciative conception in it. A smile came to the lips at certain +incidents of the story-telling, and interest showed in the soft eyes at +the relation of some striking episode. There was intelligence as there +was sad sweetness in every feature of the lovely face. Yet there +remained always in the look that quality, not of listlessness, but of +abstraction. It was a face as fascinating as it was appealing. + +In her own stateroom the Far Away Lady sat at her window, but seeing no +whirling snow, hearing not the plaint of the dying wind. She was +detained in no cold and rugged canyon. Her thoughts were far away. + +About her was no scene of pallid desolation. She looked instead, upon +the blue waters of a great calm lake, the wavelets of which splashed at +her feet, while about her all was sunshine. Seated beside her on the +rustic bench was a man, one strong, tender and trustworthy, and they +were about to part, as they thought, forever. Very sad was the man, +almost a weakling for the moment, though talking lightly in an effort to +distract her mind from what was near, blundering and only nurturing +their mutual sorrow, by indulging in foolish fancies of what might have +been. + +He was smiling by force of will as he looked across the waters toward +the invisible other shore and dreaming aloud: + +"We would build a house upon some high wooded out-jutting point upon the +other side," he said, "a house, it might be, most unpretentious, as near +the southern end of the lake as practicable, so that we would be +conveniently near the city. It might be of almost any material and be a +sort of bungalow or even only what they call a 'shack,' but comfort +would be in and all about it and happiness within its walls. It would +face the lake with an outlook on all its moods, its bright placidity or +its rage in storms, and there would be white sails and the passing +steamers and all that pertains to those who go down to the sea in ships. +And the sun would make yellow bars on the blue in the morning and in the +evening we would see it go down into the water red and 'big as a barn,' +and there would be a crimson pathway from us to it, and when the summer +darkness came, we should sit happily together, listening to the voices +of the night, the katydids and the whippoorwills and all the other +things. Then we would be waked in the morning by the sunlight again and +the songs of all the wild birds instead of by the whistles and the noisy +chattering of city sparrows. + +"And the house would have a big front room with a mighty fireplace in +the winter, and the windows would be made wide and high so that ever in +the daytime there would be light--more light--and there would be lamps +a-plenty to make it light when the dark changed into blackness. And +about the sides of all this big room there would be cases with many +books and in the center of a great table, with all the magazines and +everything of passing interest. There would be chairs, cosy, indolent +chairs, to dream in, and light ones and business-like ones, and a great +couch with many cushions. + +"Outside you should have your garden, the flowers you love so, and in +the wood there would be a fountain, fed from the lake by a windmill, +where the birds could drink and bathe and quarrel and mate, and where +we could watch and study them. You would become as wise as Linnaeus and +I as Burroughs. + +"And there will be dogs,"--unconsciously he changed the tense--"What is +home without a dog! and about the Shack we shall have no limitations. +We'll have as many as we want; there'll be an Irish setter, soft-eyed +and chestnut-coated, the perfect gentleman among dogs; there'll be a +bull terrier, bright and loving; there'll be a collie, wisest and most +observing, and, possibly, a toy dog, for your plaything at times, when +you are tired of me. And, finally, there will be a bulldog, a creature +of such aspect as to give a ghost or burglar spasms, a monster in +appearance, though kind at heart, a thing so hideous as to have a +baneful beauty, with massive bow legs, wide apart, bloodshot and leering +eyes and a countenance generally like that of a huge fanged toad. And +all of these too shall be dogs of lineage, Hapsburgs among dogs, and I +will give each of them to you when a puppy, so that you may rear them +yourself and they will become your adoring vassals and protectors. Eh, +but you will be well guarded, and I shall feel more at ease when I am +away from you, riding over to town for the mail or to get a lemon or +two. + +"And what friends we will have, not the casual, conventional, flitting +friends alone, such as some might be content with, but those closest to +us because of that which cannot be defined but which exists, and, +besides them, perhaps less close but hardly less companionable, others +of tastes and inclinations like our own, and who will riot or rest as +suits them in the atmosphere about us. They will be the brothers and +sisters of the time, and there will be doings both whimsical and wise. +There will be a rendezvous for those who know--our author friends, our +artist friends--what a lot of them are ours!--and our musical friends, +to give an added and different flavor. What a piano you'll have! I'll +get the one used by David and Miriam and Orpheus and Apollo and St. +Cecelia and Liszt and Mrs. Zeisler--if I can. Never mind the +anachronisms and solecisms--and we'll let them 'sound the loud timbrel +o'er Egypt's dark sea,' or rather o'er Lake Michigan, or engage in any +other fantasies appropriate to Arcady--land fifty dollars an acre--and, +at times, we will, no doubt, be unentitled to call our souls our own. + +"And--so well do I know you--there will be often there some of those +whose lines are not cast in the pleasant places and to whom such +freedom from care, and such taste of home and real companionship about +them will be like an outing in the outskirts, at least, of Paradise. And +we'll try to deserve the Shack! Yes, we'll deserve it all the time--when +buds are bursting, when the green leaves hide the oriole in the maple, +when the maple's leaves are red, and when there are no leaves, and the +fireplace is doing its winter's roaring. What a home it will be! Ah, my +girl, we'll"--but the sorrowful jesting failed him, and he said no more. +Then came the parting. + +And now the dreaming woman's thoughts reverted to the present. She could +see the snow and hear the wind and realize existent things. How strange +it was! Years had passed and he and she were together again, he drifting +from another hemisphere, sterner faced, perhaps, but still the same, and +she, changed too, she thought, but doubtless to less advantage. She felt +rebellious. The world was lost. To him and her could never come in life +the close comradeship which is the crown of things, the right to share +good and ill alike, and meet the future, shoulder to shoulder, +laughingly in the enduring love which can become so sublimely a part of +two souls that it is a part of immortality. + +And in the next car Stafford, too, was sitting alone and thoughts very +like those of the woman were in his mind. But he was far less patient. +His bonds were chafing him. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LIFE LINE + + +There were smiles before comment began, as the minister finished his odd +story, which, as everybody seemed to feel, was told rather to distract +attention from the outlook in the present strait than as having any +serious application to the theme under discussion, and, for a time, +there was a departure from the subject. The wind still howled outside, +but the cold did not increase perceptibly. A more cheerful feeling had +obtained and the situation was now looked upon by most of the prisoners +as but one of the extraordinary incidents of Rocky Mountain travel. + +The one woman had retired to her own car and Stafford, after a season of +wild imagining, had returned to earth again. He sat looking upon the +scene with a degree of interest. + +Experienced and toughened man of the world as he chanced to be, he was +not lacking in keen sympathies, and he wondered, as he studied the faces +about him, how the test would be endured should the car be no longer +heated and the supply of food become exhausted before aid could reach +them? He had been snowbound before, and he knew the more than +uncomfortable possibilities of the case. There might be a more continued +fall of snow than any one anticipated. The howl of the wind had subsided +a little and was no longer so menacing in tone, but rather whistled and +muttered, as it tossed the masses of snow about. It seemed to Stafford +as indicating no increased fierceness of the storm but, instead, more +snow. The man who has experienced much of climes and seasons learns to +recognize a prophecy in the voice of the wind and to set his house in +order accordingly. In this case, Stafford had much rather have heard the +wind still giving utterance to its wolf's howls. Howls and bluster were +nothing, but an addition to the difficulties of the relief train was +what was most to fear. So Stafford did not like the wind's more +whimpering tones. The other passengers, with the exception of a grizzled +miner, and perhaps, a few others who had long known the Storm King +personally, appeared delighted at any abatement of the turmoil outside. +To them, lack of noise was proof of lack of peril. + +It was the Colonel, that fine combination of Colonel Newcombe, Mr. +Macawber and an up-to-date retired American army officer, who gave +direction to the course of events again, as the discussion went on idly. +He broke in: + +"What the minister told us regarding what was or was not a special +providence relieved us, certainly, for it gave us a conundrum, and +conundrums distract the mind, but we must keep the distraction up. Have +there been no other providential dispensations?" He turned to the miner, +whom he chanced to know well: + +"Here, Jim, you who have been so long in the mountains, ought to be able +to tell us of escapes which seemed purely providential. Don't you know +of any such affair?" + +The miner, who was diffident, and who, furthermore, spoke in mountain +phrase and with a queer stutter, tried to say that he really did know of +one such case, and the Colonel forced him to tell the story. Translated +into English--for it was with difficulty that the miner was understood, +and the Colonel, who was familiar with the account, gave most of +it--this is the story of what happened to a man and wife, not +altogether tenderfeet, in the hills, and what was accomplished by + + THE LIFE LINE + +Robert Felton was in luck when he met an Eastern girl in Salt Lake City. +He was from Chicago and she from Boston. An inveterate sportsman was +Felton and each autumn when he came out to visit a mine in which he was +interested the trip terminated with a hunting expedition which extended +sometimes to the very edge of the time of storms and snow. Once or twice +he and his companions had been nearly caught snowbound in the mountains +and he had acquired experience, not perhaps sufficient. + +He met a tall bronze-haired, gray-eyed Catherine Murdoch who was on a +visit from the East--and that settled it. He fell in love a thousand +feet and wooed with all the vigor and persistency he might have +exhibited after elk or bear. It didn't take long. The splendid advance +of the tempestuous hunter-miner, business man, as cultivated as she too, +somehow fascinated the frigid beauty and she yielded in almost no time. +They met in June, were married in September and spent the winter and +spring and summer in Chicago. Then, with approaching autumn, came again +upon Felton the mountain fever, and he proposed the usual Western trip. +He was in love as deeply as ever and he was a considerate man. + +"We'll go to Salt Lake City," he said, "and I'll attend to my +business--it's all in town there--and then, dear, you'll let me make a +hunting trip, won't you, while you stay in the city and have a good time +with Mary." Mary was Mrs. Felton's cousin. + +"Where do you hunt, Bob?" inquired Mrs. Felton. + +"Oh, generally away up a canyon which forks from one where a couple of +my friends have a mine. I've had a sort of shack built away up on the +side of this branch canyon, which is about five miles across country +from the mine, and, every fall, they send over a stock of +provisions--canned goods and flour, and sugar and tea and coffee--and +come over themselves when they can and hunt and fish with me. It will be +a little late this year." + +"What sort of a place is this shack of yours?" + +"It's fine. There are a cook stove and table and three chairs and a bed. +There's a window, too, and there's a lithograph of Li Hung Chang tacked +up on the wall. It's just voluptuous--makes you think of the Taj Mahal +on the outside and the boudoir of a Sultan's favorite in the inside. +It's a dream." + +"Bob, I'm not going to stay in Salt Lake City. I'm going hunting with +you." + +"What?" + +The tone of the lady became just a shade pleading: + +"Why not, Bob?" + +"Madam, you're an honor to my home but in a shack in the mountains you +would be like La Cigale. Out of your fitting clime and place and your +own sweet season, you would perish as do the summer insects. So go the +ephemera. Why, dear, up in the shack there, it's only hunting, and +fishing, and climbing or falling and washing tin dishes and eating and +sleeping as sleep the dead and then doing the same things over again. +You're no jewel for such a setting." + +The charming lady hesitated for a moment and then spoke very +thoughtfully and earnestly though, it must be admitted, with a certain +degree of cooingness. + +"Bob, I'm afraid I've been negligent, perhaps criminally secretive--but +I have failed to make clear to you one side of my character. I wish you +to understand, sir, that I have been in the Adirondacks, season after +season, that I can swim like a duck, that I can cast a fly and that I +can shoot tolerably well. Furthermore I can cook almost anything in a +tin dish. Am I not going with you, Bob?" + +There was some astonishment and a whoop, certain excusable +demonstrations and, two weeks later, his business concluded in Salt Lake +City, Felton and his wife were up in the cabin in the mountain and the +nickel had been fairly dropped in the Western slot. + +It is wonderful when a man is afield with a man companion who +understands both him and the woods. It is more wonderful still when the +companion is a woman and the creature closest to him and understands all +things, as well. His old friends of the mining camp--came over and +hunted with him as usual and that fair veneered barbarian cooked +famously for them, like a laughing, chaffing squaw and added two more to +her list of her fervent admirers. Never were such happy days for Felton +as when he fished or hunted with his wife. Woman who well knew the +mountains, wise as well as beautiful woman, she had provided herself +with a suit for the time's exigency. Thick woolen was it, ending in +knickerbockers and stout shoes. There was a skirt which, by unclasping +its belt, could be taken on or off in an instant. She proved sturdy and +there is no occasion for the telling of the fishing and hunting records +of the two. They were most content and they lingered in the mountains. + +One day--it was late for autumn--in the foothills--Jim Trumbull, one of +Felton's two mining friends over on a visit said abruptly: + +"Felton, it's time to leave. We're all ready to skip." + +"I think so too," said Felton. "Those first little snows seem ominous. I +think we'll get it early in the season. I intend to leave to-morrow +night. The burros are all ready." + +But the next day Felton and his wife found tracks and hunting and a good +day of it, and so night found them still in the cabin. At eight o'clock +in the evening Felton went out and looked about. There was a great ring +around the moon, and the stars had a dim look, not like their usual +story. "It looks like the sky over Chicago," Felton muttered. He slept +uneasily and was awake at daylight looking anxiously from the cabin +door. The earth had changed. The universe was white. The earth was +white and the air was white. He leaped back into the cabin. Breakfast +over, the man who had forced himself to eat, said: + +"Get a day's food, Kate, and get on your hunting dress, with thick +garments under it, as quickly as you can." + +She did as he told her and he made swiftly a back load of the provisions +and her skirt and two great blankets. Well knew he that they must reach +Parson's Camp or be lost. + +They plunged into the whiteness. They must cross the billowy tongue of +high land up and down lying between the two forks of the great canyon. +Across this mesa ran a rude trail which none knew better than did +Felton, but to feel and keep it with this white shroud of snow upon the +ground and in the air was a feat almost impossible. They plunged ahead +into the white depths, for the wind had made the snow deep in the +opening, and this depth, while it retarded their progress, was after all +a godsend. It aided Felton in keeping the trail. What need to tell of +the details of that awful day? Darkness was falling when Felton carried +an exhausted and senseless woman into Parson's Camp. There was no one +there. Felton struck a match and found a half-burned candle. He gave +his wife whiskey and water and, later, food, and she was soon herself, +for the trouble was but exhaustion. Then Felton sat down upon a chair +and figured the thing out aloud. + +[Illustration: "THEY PLUNGED INTO THE WHITENESS"] + +"They thought we'd gone and so did not pay any attention to us. They had +sense enough to skip in time." + +His wife was up and beside him now. + +"What of it?" she said, "we have shelter and warmth, and when it stops +snowing perhaps we can dig out"--seeing his face, she added--"anyway +we'll be rescued, somehow." Her husband laughed, agreeingly. + +"Of course," he said, "we're all right." Then he began looking around +for food. + +He found in one corner a bushel of potatoes and hanging beside a bunk of +shelves where the cook had kept his dishes, there was a good part of a +dried deer's ham. Standing on a chair he peered over the top of the +shelves. There was nothing there. + +"We shall have to live on dried venison and potatoes," he said. "They +seem to have left most of their stuff on top here," and the lady was +content. + +"We'll have venison in all sorts of ways," she commented. "Here's some +salt," and she held up a little bag she had found on the floor. + +They supped on what they had brought and slept in the bunk which with +its belongings, had been abandoned by one of Felton's friends. There +passed a couple of blithesome days--to the woman--while Felton, brave +liar, smiled and made fires, and puns and love, and was sick at heart +and full of an inflammatory vocabulary in his inmost being. The miners +had probably not yet half way floundered through the snow lying between +them and a more or less green old valley. Without aid from the outside +Felton knew that he and his wife must die. + +The snow fell quietly, steadily, remorselessly. When the two should be +missed on the arrival of the miners at the settlement, it was more than +likely that the mountains would be inaccessible until spring. + +Felton found an axe and kept himself from desperation by digging out +certain trees in a wind blown clear space one side of the cabin. The +small trees he converted into firewood, passing the sticks through the +window to Kate, who delightedly piled the fuel up in great stacks by the +chimney. It was not very cold, and they congratulated themselves upon +their store of wood, which was carefully husbanded, for future +contingencies. + +On the fourth day it ceased snowing and they could see the world. It was +all white. The snow was about five feet on a level around the house. The +canyon down which the home trail ran was evenly filled with feathery +powdered snow. It grew colder. Felton at last told the truth to +Catherine. + +"Dear, I have been lying to you frightfully. There has been no food on +the top of the big shelf. We have enough to live on for four or five +days, at the utmost. Then we must starve. We are supposed by our friends +to be safe, and we cannot reach the outside world. It would take weeks +for the most determined men to reach us--from Sharon even, the nearest +settlement." + +Any man should be satisfied with what this woman did then. She said: +"Dear, the only reproach I have is that you did not tell me the true +situation at first. Then we could have suffered together, and that would +have been better. As it is I think I realize all the situation now. We +are together and we have been very happy anyhow." + +This altogether illogical conclusion of her words somehow strengthened +Felton wonderfully. He began fumbling round the room. Courage filled his +heart, without reason, he felt, but with courage regained he was not +inclined to quibble as to its source. + +"I don't know," he said, "somehow, my girl, you've given me hope. I'll +bet the good God will help us." + +"Course He will," responded this dignified, blessed young matron born +and bred in Boston. + +"Come," said Catherine, rousing herself from the thoughtful mood which +had gripped her, after the first excitement of Felton's revelation was +over. "We haven't half explored this place. Who knows but there's a +barrel of flour stowed away in some dark corner." + +"Behind this door--for example," said Felton, entering into his wife's +mood, and glad for any little diversion to check thought and +imagination. + +There had been standing against the wall in one dark corner of the room +an old door, evidently brought in from some outhouse for the repairing +of its hinges. It had not been disturbed since the new occupancy of the +place. Felton grasped the pineplanks in both hands and set them to one +side. There semi-gleaming in the candlelight hung revealed one of the +two business ends of the common place and eminently valuable telephone +of North America. + +Felton gasped and then sat down backwards on the floor. "Holy smoke," +was all he said. + +Catherine came running to the half dazed man but for a little time he +said nothing. He was thinking. He remembered suddenly that there was a +telephone between the mine and the nearest town in the valley, that to +which the miners had fled. Of course the line was deep beneath the snow, +part of the way, but it might be working. He looked at his wife in a +dazed way, clambered to his feet and took hold of the receiver. + +"Don't be disappointed," said Catherine, "if it doesn't work. We shall +be saved somehow." + +"Hello!" shouted Felton, into the familiar, waiting 'phone. + +The dazed wife stood by in the silence which ensued, saying nothing. + +Moment after moment passed and there came no answer. Still the man stood +there repeating at intervals of four or five minutes the hopeless word, +the call "Hello". Suddenly he upreared himself, laughed somewhat wildly, +and applied his lips to the transmitter. + +"Hello! Who is this?" came the query from Sharon. + +"I am Robert Felton. Tell Jim Worthy or George Long that we are snowed +in at Parsons, without provisions for more than a few days, and tell +them to come in a hurry--the trail is from five to twenty feet deep in +snow." + +"Who do you mean by we--all of the Parson's crowd?" + +Then another question was put. + +"My wife is with me--we are alone--the Parson's outfit left the night +the storm began." + +"All right. Keep a stiff upper lip. There'll be help coming," called the +operator, and the bell rung ending the conversation. + +Felton could not speak. He sat dumbly waiting, while Catherine chattered +to him of commonplace things to win him back to his ordinary frame of +mind. + +Soon the telephone bell rang again, and this time friendly, well known +voices gave messages of hope and good cheer. It was rumored that the men +from Parson's camp were on the way--but so far they had not arrived. Men +and horses amply supplied with tools, with provisions, with everything +needful, would leave the valley at once for the work of rescue. + +"But how long can you hold out?" at last broke in one of the heartsome, +friendly voices. + +"It may take us ten or even twenty days to shovel through to you--can +you stand such a siege?" + +"We'll do our best," returned Felton, over the wire, "but the truth is, +we are pretty short of food, so take no chances." + +They were already living on carefully measured out rations and Felton +resolved to reduce his own portion below the meagre amount he had +already given himself. + +"Keep up heart, we'll help you--Good-bye!" So ended this talk with +Worthy and Long. + +The days dragged. The wood chopping, the fire keeping, the story +telling, to beguile the weary hours, went on. Once or twice a day came a +message of good hope from Sharon. The rescuers were off, and in the +shortest time possible would reach the beleagured couple. + +One morning there came a sharp, insistent ringing of the bell which +opened the door of the world to these two who were making their one +daily meal from scraps of dried meat, and almost the very last of the +treasured rations were in their hands at the moment. + +"Hello!" called Felton at the 'phone in a moment. + +"Hello! That you Felton?" + +"Yes. This isn't Tom, is it?" + +"Yes--of course, Tom, just in from Parson's--been hearing about you. We +left in a hurry--mighty lucky or you wouldn't have had the telephone +connected and ready for business." + +It was one of the men from Parson's camp. + +"They've reached Sharon!" said Felton to Catherine. + +"Say!" came Tom's voice over the wire, "You've found the stores, haven't +you?" + +"What stores?" replied Felton--"We found a little dried venison, and +some potatoes in the cupboard, but they are all gone." + +"Darn a tenderfoot anyway!" shouted Tom--then recollecting himself he +went on. "Take up a board there over by the table. Where do you expect +to find provisions if not in the cellar?" Then he muttered to himself. +"They're in luck. It's just a providence! We thought of packing that +grub down with us." + +Down went the hand of Felton, and away he sprung to the square pine +table near the door. Taking up a loose board he gazed exantantly into +what Tom called the cellar, a square hole under the floor, filled with +boxes and kegs and tin cans of meat and vegetables and biscuits. + +"Catherine!" he called, but Catherine was already there, kneeling by +him, her arms around his neck. She was crying, the brave girl, and +Felton was conscious of a sneaking desire to follow her example. + +"But won't we feast?" at last Catherine spoke. And then she ran to the +telephone to send her own special message to Tom, and to the whole +Parsons outfit, and it is certain that there never went over the wires a +more grateful and gracious thankfulness than was expressed by Catherine +and Felton upon this occasion. + +And so, with renewed life, the two awaited events, and one day, toward +noon, they heard through the stillness a faint sound, a sort of metallic +clink, and a little later they were sure of the welcome ring of men's +voices. Felton fired off the loaded rifle which hung over the cabin door +at Parson's and soon came an answering volley of pistol shots and a +faintly heard muffled "hurrah." + +Felton seized his own snow shovel, and began madly working through the +drifts in front of the door. His efforts looked puny in the waste of +snow, but it was a relief to his nerves to be active, and soon Catherine +joined him, laughing and royally flourishing the Parsons broom. + +It was two hours before the rescuing army of miners and cowboys reached +the little lane which Felton and Catherine had cut out and swept for +them--scarce ten yards it reached from the doorway. And then, well, then +it was but a few days back to the world--that world which had been saved +to Felton and his wife by the life line, the wire stretched across and +through the snow between mountains and men. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A TOAD AND A SONG + + +There had been a period of aimless talk in the rear car after the Miner +had concluded, but this resolved itself finally into a lively discussion +regarding the probable quality of the hidden country round about. Some +declared that there existed only the abomination of desolation while +others spoke of the amazing wealth concealed beneath the surface of the +earth and asserted that neither the Land of Ophir nor Pennsylvania could +endure comparison with the region in which they were now marooned. + +"Is this place in the midst of the ore-producing or the coal region?" +some one asked, "or is it in neither? How about it, Mr. Miner?" + +"I don't know," responded the Miner, "I only know that if it's coal, +it's better than metal. When you find coal, you've got something. When +you find silver or gold, you don't know how hard it may be to extract it +from its rock or how soon the find will peter out. Even bonanzas peter +out. When you find gold or silver, you're just flirtin'. When you strike +a coal bed you've got married." + +There was a laugh at the Miner's simile and then a reflection from +another seeker after information, Mrs. Livingston this time. + +"I wonder which is the older, the ore or the coal? It would be +interesting to know." + +"I imagine, madam," said the Professor, as he was only known, "that the +ore deposits, formed by volcanic upheavals, far antedate those of coal, +originating from vegetable deposits, great forests, fern-like forests it +may be, which had their being long after earth had become productive. +Besides, as I understand, a toad has been taken from a coal mine and the +toad, thus discovered, belongs to a modern order of batrachians." + +"Was the toad alive?" was asked. + +"So I understand," said the Professor. "It was in a comatose condition +but revived when brought into the air and light." + +There was much comment among the party and then an idea came suddenly to +the Young Lady, who was by no means lacking in sentiment or fancy. "I +wonder," she mused, "what that toad was thinking of during all the +centuries of his dark imprisonment? Mr. Poet," she broke out, "You are +to retire to the end of the car and, for one hour, at least, no word may +you utter. I will find you paper and pencil now, and you may not speak +again until you have written a poem telling of the sensations of that +toad when he was restored to light and air again." + +The Poet was gallant. "One cannot do well always under duress," was his +response, "but one should certainly make an effort, under the +circumstances. I'll do my best, at least." + +And so, amid the laughter of the passengers, he was hustled off to a +corner and left to his fancies and his struggle. The conversation went +on and the sufferer in the corner was almost forgotten save, of course, +by the Young Lady. It was a little after the hour's end, when he +emerged, exhibiting a rather graceful diffidence. And this is what he +read: + +THE TOAD FROM THE MINES + + I am a toad, + Squat and grimy and rough and brown, + I come from a queer abode, + From down, down, down, + Where, for centuries, no light + Had fallen on my sight, + Until, with sudden shock, + Parted the rock, + Yielded the stony clamps + And blazed in my dim eyes the miners' lamps! + What view is now unfurled! + It is another world + From that I left + Centuries ago, to which they've brought me + Since the black rock was cleft + Where thus they caught me. + Centuries ago, one day, + I was upon a river bank, at play. + Nature was very fair; + I fed on buzzing insects of the air, + Beneath tall palms that grew beside the stream + In which huge monsters bathed. It did not seem + A world like this at all. It was more grand. + The mighty waters washed a teeming land + And life was great and fervid. Suddenly + Upheaved the land, upheaved the awful sea; + The earth was riven; toppling forests bent, + To sink and disappear in that vast rent! + Down, down, down. + The landscape plunged from light and life away + And now again, to me alone, 'tis day. + How odd it all appears! + Encysted in the rock ten thousand years, + I am a stranger here; I cannot praise + Those who released me; mine are not your ways. + In this new life I have no enterprise; + The sunshine in my eyes + But gives me pain. + Put me in some niche of the rock again, + It is the only fit abode + For me--a prehistoric toad. + +There was a buzz of applause as the Poet concluded. Then up rose Colonel +Livingston. + +"The Toad's experience has made me sentimental and dreamy of mood. +Personally, I'd like to have my savage breast soothed by some music. +Has anybody a piano? No? Well, we can get along without one. Will not +some one sing? Who can sing? Mr. Stranger,"--and he addressed himself to +a recent and as yet unrecognized addition to the party--"you seem to +enter into the spirit of the occasion and to enjoy our fancies indulged +here in this, our preposterously direful strait. Will you sing for us?" + + [Music: + + 1. We are the Dreamers of Dreams, + We're the creators of fancies; ... + We are whatever it seems, ... + The owners of reason that dances. + We are the Dreamers of Dreams. + + 2. We tread the paths that are vagrant, + And we do the deeds that are flagrant, ... + But ever, without any goad, ... + We find our way back to the road. + We are the Dreamers of Dreams. + + 3. For we are the Dreamers of Dreams, etc. + ] + +And to the amazement of all, the Stranger did not hesitate a moment. +"Certainly," said he. "I believe in fancies." And this is what he sang: + +THE DREAMERS OF DREAMS + + We are the Dreamers of Dreams; + We are the creatures of fancies; + We are--whatever it seems,-- + The owners of reason that dances, + We are the Dreamers of Dreams. + + We tread in the paths that are vagrant, + And we do the deeds that are flagrant; + But ever without any goad, + We find our way back to the road. + + For we are the Dreamers of Dreams; + We are the creatures of fancies; + We are--whatever it seems,-- + The owners of reason that dances, + We are the Dreamers of Dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ALAN MACGREGOR'S BROWN LEG + + +One whose presence aided in promoting a healthful mental atmosphere +among those so constrained to be together was a lady perhaps thirty +years of age who bore herself with the air of a school-teacher, but +decidedly with the manner of one whom her pupils would more love than +fear. She laughingly alluded to herself as the Teacher and, by common +consent, this had become her designation. It was she, most well-informed +and reflective of ladies, who, after the applause following the +Stranger's song had barely died away, advanced a proposition involving +immediately and deeply a tanned, good-looking man who, as was known, had +been engaged in the work of collecting rare orchids in South America. + +"I have read somewhere," said she, "that people adrift for days at sea, +and parched and half-crazed with thirst, either relieve or, possibly, +aggravate their sufferings--I do not know how that may be--by all sorts +of queer debate as to whether ice-water is good for the health or not, +whether iced-claret is better than plain lemonade, in short in a +discussion as to the relative merits of all sorts of cooling drinks. And +I have read too, that people starving, like some of the Arctic +explorers, conduct themselves in almost the same way, imagining all +sorts of magnificent repasts, each telling of some meal where his choice +among foods was the principal dish or describing what he would first +order should he ever reach civilization again. + +"Now," she continued, "it seems to me," and she drew her cloak about her +more closely and with a shudder, "it seems to me that it would be a +great relief and comfort if some one were to tell a story of a tropic +region, a place where snow and ice are all unknown. I think we would +enjoy it. I know I should myself. Mr. Explorer," and she turned to that +gentleman, "you have certainly at some time wandered about in the +vicinity of the Equator, cannot you tell us a story, the scene of which +is laid in a region where it is always decently warm?" And she shuddered +again and cuddled down more closely in her seat. + +The Explorer answered readily: "I've been in the vicinity of the +Equator a great many times, but I do not remember any experience which +would furnish material for a story." He hesitated a moment, "Ah, yes, I +do, it's a very curious story, too. I think we may call it + + ALAN MACGREGOR'S BROWN LEG + +Alan MacGregor was with us in South America. He was with us, but not of +us. He had money enough, and had come along just because I wanted him +to, and he wanted to see what the tropics were like. We were a +semi-scientific group, looking for orchids and caoutchouc and various +other things which could be transported down the Amazon and turned into +good dollars at any port on the Atlantic coast. + +MacGregor was practically an outsider, but was generally regarded as one +of us. I think the only possible distinction which existed between him +and any other man of the group was, that he was desperately in love with +a young Scottish woman of Chicago, of whose intense clannishness and +patriotism he was everlastingly boasting and laughing the while. In +fact, he became almost something of a bore to us, with his dreaming and +his tale-telling of this Miss Agnes Cameron, who, he declared was the +most earnest Highlander on the face of the earth. She knew every clan +and the coloring of any crisscross of tartan ever worn under snowflake +or under sunshine. He was most desperately in love, and what he seemed +greatly to admire in his sweetheart was her pure Scottish patriotism. +She thought of, and he quoted, only "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," or +"Up with the bonnets of Bonny Dundee," or any other thing of that sort +relating to the exploits of the Highlanders of modernly classic times. + +Well, MacGregor and I did a good deal of exploring and a good deal of +shooting, and enjoyed ourselves together. It is not necessary in this +account to mention the exact locality, because, to tell the truth, I +could not remember it distinctly myself. We were camped in the corner of +a little affluent of the Amazon, some hundreds of miles up from the +delta. It was a pleasant enough region, barring the fact that it was +frightfully hot and that there seemed to be more jaguars and alligators +and anacondas to the square mile than were really necessary. Of course, +tastes differ as to the number of jaguars and alligators and anacondas +there should be to this mentioned area, but the consensus of opinion in +our little party was that, in that latitude and altitude, the average +had been a little overrun. Not only were they numerous--the animals thus +indicated--but they seemed to be, in every instance, healthy and +unnecessarily enterprising. + +Lots of things happened, but the thing which has always remained best +fixed in my memory was the affair of MacGregor's brown leg. We had been +out shooting parrots together that very afternoon, and I remember that +he drove me nearly mad by his repetition of how good a Scotchwoman his +"lassie" was, and how she boasted of the fact that she was a direct +descendant of the reckless old riever, who, herding back into the +Highlands stolen cattle from the Lowlands, and stopping for a few hours +about midnight to let kine and clansmen rest, suddenly discovered that +his son, his eldest son, the pride of clan and family, had so +degenerated that, lying barelegged in the snow, he had rolled up a +snowball for a pillow, and was there sleeping most luxuriously when his +father found him. The old laird promptly kicked that snowball into the +ewigkeit, and wanted to know how far his family had become degenerate +and degraded! Well, Miss Agnes Cameron boasted of this old laird as her +great, great, and so on, ancestor. This will give some idea of the +extent of her native pride in bare legs and Scottish blood. + +It was, perhaps, four o'clock one afternoon when we were in camp in an +open glade in the very midst of the forest, that the whole company +scattered itself of its own impulse. I wanted to study the habits of a +small animal, a specimen of which I had seen among some rocks a mile +away--a sort of little armadillo. My scientific associate wanted to try +for a jaguar, the growls of which our attendants had heard in the +forest, a mile or so in the other direction. The natives whom we had +employed as guides and servants were themselves anxious to engage in a +little expedition of their own. They had seen a fruit of which they are +fond--they are always gorging when they have opportunity, these almost +savage natives--and they wanted to go out and gather a great quantity of +it while the opportunity offered. Alan alone remained inactive. He had +worked hard the day before, had done a lot of shooting, and had need of +rest, and now, as he declared, he wanted to slip away and sleep all the +afternoon. Sometimes Alan drank a little. I believe he had a flask with +him that day. At any rate, we all departed and left him lying stretched +out upon the ground beneath a giant tree, which kept him shaded as if +beneath an umbrella, fifty feet, at least, in its diameter. + +That is all there was to the situation. We drifted away into the forest +in our several directions, and left Alan lying there sleeping like a +lump, for, poor fellow, he needed rest. "It would take a good deal to +disturb that man," laughed one of the party as we departed. Now, as to +what followed, I can tell you only of what I did not see, but what, as +was made apparent later, was the absolute fact. + +We were camped close beside a great creek which reached the affluent of +the Amazon, and along these creeks, as along the river proper, were +gigantic serpents. The anaconda is as much at home on land as in water. +Those big constrictors of the southern part of this great hemisphere are +dreadful. They prey upon the deer and upon a thousand other things. They +are a terror everywhere, and, though we did not know it at the time, +there was concealed in that tree beneath which poor Alan was lying, a +very healthy specimen of this powerful reptile. That was what we +concluded afterward, although the great snake may not have been there +when we left, and may have come afterward. Anyway, what happened must +have been just this: The great serpent saw the sleeping man, and looked +upon him as his prey. He saw what was his food breathing stertorously, +and he dropped from the tree or came up from the river beside him. He +began to swallow the man. + +[Illustration: "THE GREAT SNAKE BEGAN ITS WORK OF DEGLUTITION"] + +It was unfortunate for this particular anaconda that the reptilia are +not great reasoners. He should have begun upon the man's head. Then it +would have been a simple thing. The man would have been engulfed, the +serpent would have crawled sluggishly a hundred yards or so away and +begun his period of digestion, and that would have been the end of the +incident. Instead of that, he started on a foot, and began swallowing +from that point. Now, it is a well-known fact that this swallowing of a +body by any of the constrictor family, except as to contraction and +eventual suffocation, is harmless, because the jaws of this class of +serpents are unconnected. The upper jaw slips forward, hooks onto the +body with its fangs and draws it into an enormously distended throat. +Then the under jaw slips forward in the same manner, hooks its fangs, +and draws it back in the same way. So, inch by inch, a body is +engulfed. Anything with a nonsensitive exterior can be swallowed by an +anaconda, a boa, or a python without knowing about it until a lack of +air becomes apparent. + +MacGregor wore a pair of very heavy leather trousers he had secured to +guard him against the undergrowth with which we had to worry. So the +great snake began his work of deglutition, and Alan lay there, +unconscious of what was going on. Still that snake swallowed Alan as +fast as he could. He swallowed him as far up as the leg went and then +stopped, from the simple fact that the rest of Alan lay at right angles +across his mouth, and he could not swallow any further. But a snake does +not reason much, and this particular anaconda lay there contented, +perhaps in his dim way knowing that he had got something good as far as +it went, and that he was satisfied. And the process of digestion went +on. + +It was truly a coincidence that we all returned almost together that +evening. It must have been about seven o'clock. Malcolm came back from +his particular quest without a jaguar. I had failed to find my little +animal. The natives had found their fruit, and had gathered a large +load, or they would have been in long before us. Then we looked for +Alan. To describe the scene that ensued when our poor friend was +discovered would be impossible. He was sleeping like a log. We thought +him dead, at first, but some one gave him a spat upon the face and +shouted, and he leaped, or tried to leap, to his feet, and when he saw +what was the matter, he gave one of the most blood-curdling yells ever +emitted upon either the North or the South American continent. The snake +began thrashing around, but was already in a semi-lethargic condition, +and was promptly chopped in two a little below the point where the foot +of our poor friend was supposed to be. Then the remainder of the serpent +was cut away with much difficulty from the leg which it had enveloped, +and a shocking spectacle was presented. + +It is understood, generally, that the digestive organs of the anaconda +are something most remarkable. Here was an illustration in fact. Not +only the leather trousers of our unfortunate friend had been digested +away, but the digesting process had reached his skin and destroyed it +utterly. The bare flesh was all exposed and the skin had followed the +trousers. Alan was unable to stand, and was so overcome with horror at +his condition, as to be incapable of suggesting anything for relief +from his immediate predicament or for his future restoration. The raw +flesh attracted a myriad of insects, who added all their tantalizing +possibilities to the situation. Alan could not bear contact with any +sort of covering, and none of us was provided with oiled silk or +anything suitable for such an unheard-of emergency. I did not know what +to do. I called upon Dr. Jacobson, the eminent scientist of the +expedition. Hardly had I asked his advice, before there came the whirr +and swish of arrows, and we were in a charming fight in no time. The +event, in fact, became almost too interesting, but we managed to drive +off the natives and found half a dozen of them, dead or dying in the +underbrush. They had carried off most of their wounded. + +To Jacobson came an inspiration, as he was looking curiously at one of +the dead natives. He broke out excitedly: + +"There's an insensible, dying Indian just about the size of MacGregor. +If we work quickly enough, we can do the biggest job of skin grafting +ever heard of upon this or any other continent, or anywhere in stellar +space as far as you have a mind to go." + +We did it all with a rush, under the scientist's direction. We skinned +that half-way nigger's leg, and it was immediately and neatly inflected, +adjusted, and stitched upon the leg which had loitered a shade too long +in the maw of the anaconda. The dark skin fitted on, and grew to be a +part of MacGregor in almost no time. Talk about the "hand-me-down" man +who assures the customer that the thing "fits shust like de paper on de +vall," well, neither he nor his customer could be counted in with our +scientist and MacGregor and a portion of the South American, so lately +but so permanently deceased. + +That is about all there is to the tropical part of this episode. I was +present when Alan met his sweetheart again. Soon came St. Andrew's day. +MacGregor was to be a prominent figure, and his sweetheart awaited the +occasion with pride and hopefulness, and great enthusiasm. She waited, +anxiously, until she should see her true love conspicuous, as she +thought he ought to be, in the crack organization of those who made part +of the parade of St. Andrew's day. There came a moment of intense +excitement, both to her and to the somewhat overbearing Scottish group +about her. When it was generally understood that the most vaunting, +aristocratic, and full-blooded Scots company was about to pass, she +watched and watched, watched just for him, to see her great lover +stalking nobly in the finest company. Time lagged. Never before had Time +so loafed and enjoyed himself in some nonsense by the wayside. Finally, +a hundred yards away, came imposing and demanding on the ear-drums the +music of the pipes. There wasn't any slogan, because there wasn't any +fight, but something almost as appealing to the clean, stubborn, +Scottish heart, be it in man or woman. They swung around the corner and +into the main street. She saw it all and she knew it all, and looked for +Alan MacGregor among those coming barelegged to the fore with the weird +music which has for centuries meant ever pluck, and sometimes conquest. +Her eyes turned this way and that way, and finally they lit upon her +sweetheart. There was no doubt about it. There he was, marching as +lieutenant or something of that sort, of the tartaned company, all +barelegged from below the kilt a little above the knee to thick stocking +just below the knee, all alike displaying this ancient Scottish +endurance of field and flood and of anything else. The girl's stately +Alan walked grandly in his place, clad confidently in the tartan of his +clan, and showing his strip of leg about the knee as brazenly as did any +other man of the parading Scotsmen. + +The girl saw him, looked upon him, first buoyant, excited and admiring, +then appalled. She saw him lording it abroad among his minions, and, at +the same time, she noted that his legs were black and those of the other +men white. She could not understand it; it was something ghastly. + +What had happened was this: + +It was the morning of St. Andrew's day, and they were gathered in the +armory, the hundreds of enthusiastic Scots. The sun's rays shot slanting +through the windows, lit upon bonnet, tartan, and sporan, and upon legs +bare at the knee, "uncomely fair," as a veteran observed, which was not +to be wondered at, as they were thus exposed but once a year, to the +intense but concealed discomfort of their shivering but patriotic +owners. Ringing-voiced and cheerful among them was Alan MacGregor. He +dressed himself in the retiring room, as did the others, and came out in +all the kilted glory of his ancient clan. He was a fine figure of a man +to look upon, but there was a howl when he appeared. The bare patch +about the knee of one leg showed white, and on the other, black! + +"Ken ye what's the matter wi' your legs, mon?" roared a giant among the +group; and MacGregor looked down, to realize in a moment his condition. +It would never do to march through the streets with one leg black and +the other white. In desperation he told his story to his assembled +countrymen. There was a groan of sympathy and perplexity, until the +tension was relieved by the cry of an inventive young whelp from the +Orkneys: + +"What's the matter with ink?" + +The suggestion was received with a howl of applause, and, three minutes +later, the bare portion of MacGregor's white leg was made to correspond +in color with the other. + +To repeat, in a way, what has been already told, from the armory, the +gallant Scotsmen swung upon the street in serried numbers, to march +imposingly through streets lined and flanked with thousands and +thousands of their fellow-citizens of any birth. They made a spectacle +which it was good to see. Each piper "screwed his pipes and garred them +skirl," "The pibroch lent its maddening tone," and the pipes droned and +clamored and yelped for victory nearer and nearer all the time. The +marchers passed in gallant style. The moment came at last when, with a +defiant howl of the pipes, MacGregor's company passed the stand, and it +was now that, as has been related, Agnes saw her lover, broad +shouldered, cleanly built, and striding with the inherited gait of a +thousand chieftains. Eh! but he was fine! For one blissful moment Agnes +gazed upon her lover's figure, before she saw his knees. She swooned, +and the lady who sat next her applied her salts and led her gently from +the scene. + +It seemed to the Scotchwoman there was but one thing for her to do. When +she recovered sufficiently, she wrote this letter to her Alan: + + Oh, Alan! Are ye no patriot, no product of the Scotsmen of the + old time? And I, I thought your blood as blue as the water in + the mountain lakes fresh tinted from the sky. Oh, Alan! my + Alan! ye looked so braw, barrin' the black breeks ye wore to + protect the single patch of ye from the raw weather. Oh, Alan! + did our stern ancestors do the like of that? Cared they for + squall or flurry or the frost rime? Oh, my Alan! I love ye. Ye + ken it well, but we must not marry. Think ye I would tak pride + in children of the man of the black breeks? I'm gey--sore gey! + + Your AGNES. + +Now note what happened! Now pity me! Alan was heart-riven and wild, and +came to me in his distress. I was the only person in the great city who +could give authoritatively the story of his brown leg. I was the only +person who could re-establish him in Agnes' mind as an ardent Scot. +Imagine a mission like that. Imagine a man having to go and talk to a +young lady about one of her lover's legs! I don't know how I did it, but +certainly I did it. I want to say here and now and frankly--and I don't +care whether she reads it or not--that when I first met her, the +temperature was far more sultry than we had ever found it upon the +Amazon. It dropped many degrees, though, before my story was concluded. + +Well, they have a boy about two years old, and they have named him after +me. I don't know what I'll do to that boy. The little wretch hugs me so +strenuously that I believe he is part anaconda. + +And this ended the story-telling for the day. Their imaginations had +been "stretched enough" commented kindly Mrs. Livingston. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE HUGE HOUND'S MOOD + + +The morning of the third day of rude experience opened somewhat more +brightly for "the wastrels of the waste," as the Young Lady of the party +very nicely designated them, for it had cleared. There remained, +however, the thought that the addition to the snowfall must delay the +work of rescue, an apprehension which was soon confirmed. Stafford was +using the telegraph with no inconvenience now. He had contrived to bring +a wire from the main line into the smoking car, and communication from +there with those on the relief train was an easy matter. The news that +came was not exhilarating. Very slow headway was being made, so the +workers beyond the drifts reported. The railroad company had not yet +installed the rotary snow-plows which, later, proved most effective, +hurling the snow to a distance and clearing the way thoroughly, while +the one in use but bored its way through the drifts, only to have a part +of the tossed-up mass come whelming back to the track again. There was +a vast amount of shovelling to do, and that took time. The resolute +workers "at the other end of the trouble," as the trainmen called it, +were not discouraged, but they admitted that they were not attending a +midsummer picnic. In fact there was no semblance of a picnic about it. +They were not so assured now that release would come to the enthralled +on the fourth day, at the latest. They but expressed a glittering +confidence that the fifth day, beyond all doubt, would see the end. This +assurance by no means satisfied the captive passengers. They felt that +the White Jailor still held the keys and had them in his inside pocket. + +There was much gossip over the emergency line and, despite the somewhat +oppressive news, there was infused an element of cheerfulness by this +easy, sympathetic communication with the outside world. The car in which +the instrument was placed was a magnet, for, though Stafford was the +only one on the train possessing sufficient experience to accomplish +what he had done, there were some who understood a little of the science +of telegraphy and could receive and send messages, after a fashion. +Communication between the trains was going on most of the time. + +Stafford had completed his work at the instrument and returned to his +own car, where the usual group, with others who had wandered in, were +assembled, amusing themselves as best they could for the after-luncheon +hour. He had noted the outline of a woman's head as he entered, and +though her face was not toward him, knew very well to whom the fair head +belonged. A sudden courageous impulse swayed him to its way, an impulse +for which he had reason to be grateful all his life. He advanced and +seated himself directly across the aisle from the Far Away Lady, who +looked at him and smiled a quiet welcome. He was not quite himself as he +began talking to her, but he did well, under the circumstances, and so +did she. It was a meeting as delicious as constrained, for this was the +first occasion on which they had opportunity to engage in anything like +a real conversation. Hesitant, happy but, in a vague way, apprehensive, +with a trying past recalled by tones as familiar to each as if five +years were but an hour, the two exchanged only commonplaces at first, +comment on the curious manner in which they were now held from the rest +of humanity, or speculation over the immediate prospect. It was all +commonplace, or would have been so, if either been able to veil the +story of the eyes. Eyes are faithful but sometimes faithless servitors, +meaning well and doing ill. None can control them absolutely, lovers +least of all. + +And then their misgivingly sweet communion was ended by what was so +inconceivably and suddenly alarming and dangerous that even Stafford +was, for a moment, dazed. + +From outside came the sound of a wild yell followed by what was a man's +shout, or rather shriek, of terror, then, commingled with a fierce yelp +and growl, a sound of clattering on the car steps a rattling of the +door, its sudden violent opening, as a man's form veered away from it +and plunged into the snow on the other side, and then the appearance of +a Thing which hesitated but a second, then turned and entered the car +leapingly, a monstrous brute with fanged jaws agape and glaring eyes and +death in his fierce intent. Not the Black Dog of the Marshes, not Red +Wull, the murderer of Scottish sheep, not the Hound of the Baskervilles +could have presented an appearance more utterly demoniacal. + +There were cries and shouts of alarm and the occupants of the car were +on their feet as the great brute plunged forward. He saw, apparently, +but one object. The Far Away Lady had been sitting close to the outside +of her seat and it was her white, startled face which drew the red eyes +of the charging monster. Two great leaps he made and the third was at +her throat. + +But not so swift the leap as that of the man opposite the imperiled +woman. As a panther starts, Stafford shot from his place and was before +her. With arm upraised, to shield his throat, he met the full impact of +the tremendous force, staggering before it, but not falling. Then began +a struggle brief but terrifying. + +The hound's teeth found nothing as they came together, missing the +fending left arm as the man thrust it forward, and coming together +viciously as the brute fell back for an instant and leaped again. This +time the arm was siezed fiercely as the man's right hand grasped firmly +the dog's throat. There was a momentary wrenching and swaying, the dog's +hold on the arm was lost and, at the same instant, almost, the hand of +the arm released was aiding its fellow in the throat grip, when the +fierce wrestle became more even. The dog writhed and twisted madly while +the man stood, pale but firm, his legs braced against the seats as he +sought a mastery of the folding skin and to bring his hands together +until they should find the windpipe and afford a chance of throttling +his powerful adversary. The feat was not an easy one, for there were +great size and the strength of savage rage to overcome. Growling +hoarsely, foaming at the mouth, whining hungrily in its blood-thirst, +the brute surged forward again and again, and wrenched and swayed in the +effort to free himself from that merciless, seeking hold. So they swung +and tottered for a moment, and then, at last, the man found the deadly +grip he had been feeling for; he had the windpipe of the beast! + +Now came another aspect to the struggle. The hound, in peril now, no +longer aggressive, for the moment, was fighting for his life. His +strength was going. With a mighty effort, Stafford swung him about and +backward against the seat, gasping and gurgling. With the utmost +strength of his hands the man squeezed and bore forward, at the same +time, with all the weight and impulse of his body. The dog twisted in +frightful paroxysms, the red tongue protruded and the eyes stared +blindly, but there was too much vitality in the animal for a sudden end +of all. Still the man surged forward with all his might, bearing so +closely that the hot slaver of the beast was on his cheek and in his +hair. The straining lasted for a little time, and then at last came what +was certain; there was a sudden yielding, a great final gasp, the big +body relaxed and straightened out and the fight was over. Stafford rose +weakly upright, assisted by the men who had vainly sought opportunity to +assist him in the sudden fight and turned toward the woman who lay faint +and white, against the window ledge, with face upturned and eyes +unseeing. They carried her gently to her stateroom. + +[Illustration: "THE BIG BODY RELAXED AND STRAIGHTENED OUT"] + +There was a rush of the passengers to Stafford's side and there were +showering thanks and congratulations and all the exclamatory comment +which would naturally follow a scene so startling and with such a +termination, but one man swept the others aside, with suddenly acquired +authority, and demanded an examination of Stafford's hurt. It was the +physician of the group, and the wisdom of his action was recognized at +once. It was found that the dog's teeth had entered the fore-arm +deeply, but the marks were clean and the blood was flowing readily. "It +would be nothing serious," commented the doctor, "if it were not for the +chance of hydrophobia. Do you think the dog was mad?" he asked of +Stafford. + +And, even as he spoke, something happened, something which, as before, +was so unexpected, so alarming, so utterly beyond all ordinary chance, +as to rob the men there of the moment's reason. There was a snarl like +that of a tiger at their very feet and the dog's neck upreared among +them fiercely. He had not been strangled utterly unto death, and had +revived to breath and life again. His strength seemed to return to him +instantaneously. With a growl which was almost a roar, the beast surged +into the aisle, his glaring eyes unseeing at first but, as perception +came to them, discerning again but a single object. Their devouring +intent was upon a figure just entering the other doorway. The animal's +sighted quarry was the effervescent youth who had first made himself +generally known on the train because of his air of optimism. He had +instant opportunity for an exhibition of all his blithesome qualities. + +Straight toward the man the dog plunged furiously, in an uplifting leap +which was but a hurling of himself squarely at his throat as he had +leaped at that thinner one of the Far Away Lady, but the youth lacked +not presence of mind, which was illustrated in so diminutive a fraction +of a second as to be practically unrecordable. Far and well he sprang +from the steps of the car and landed in a drift up to his armpits, +falling forward as the dog plunged after him. The beast collided with +the railing of the platform and turned and rolled into the snow as he +struck the earth, or as nearly the earth as he could go. The snow was +above his head, and well it was for the pursued that it was the case. +The man plunged ahead, hampered, it is true, but making swift headway in +his alarm, straight toward a tree on the ascending slope, a stunted pine +which was providentially but a few yards away, while the brute pursuing +him plunged wildly about yelping and barking, guided only by scent and +sound in his fierce chase. The man had the advantage and what had seemed +a prospective tragedy one moment became something very like a comedy the +next. It was droll but well was it for the evading man that the snow he +had lately been anathematizing had now become his ally and protector. He +reached the tree not much ahead of the raving dog, who was at its trunk +in a moment as soon as the pursued came fairly into sight, and +clambering to safety upon a lower limb, not very far up but sufficiently +high to assure him immunity from the snapping jaws of the beast leaping +upward in a vain attempt to reach the perching chase. The youth wound +his arms about the bole and dangled his legs down tantalizingly, +meanwhile announcing exuberantly to the people who had rushed to the +platform that snow was the finest thing in the world, when it was deep +enough. All would have been over with in a moment and the youth free to +come down from his eyrie but for a sudden interruption, for half a dozen +of the passengers had, by this time, secured revolvers from their grips +and were about to end at once the career of the raging animal. A shot, +which missed had already been fired when the voice of Stafford rang out +sharply: + +"Don't shoot! Don't shoot the brute, yet! I want to know first whether +or not he is a mad dog. Wait a few moments." + +His request was obeyed unhesitatingly, all recognizing its good sense +and forethought, while the Gallus Youth called out cheerily: "That's +right. I'll amuse him here Mr. Stafford while you diagnose his ailment. +It's a good idea. May save a record case of hydrophobia. Try him on, but +look out, or 'dar's gwine ter be not only trubble in de chu'ch but +discawd in de choir.'" + +And while the passengers crowded at the windows and on the platforms, +Stafford did "try him on." He sent for bread and meat and, stepping down +to the lower step of the car, waited until the dog had become silent for +a moment and was gazing intently and watchfully upward at his undestined +prey, and then called out, attracting his attention. There was a general +shrinking back, the majority of the passengers expecting a rush of the +animal toward the car again, but to the surprise of all he did not move +as Stafford spoke to him soothingly, though he turned his head and +showed his teeth. Stafford leaned forward and tossed to the dog's very +feet the steaming meat and other food which had been brought and no +sooner had the scent reached the nostrils of the beast than, ignoring +instantly the man perched in the tree he pounced upon the food +voraciously, gulping it down as if he had not fed for months. Stafford +called for more and fed the suffering creature until he would eat no +longer. Then he called the dog to him, good-naturedly and in an ordinary +tone, and, astounding as it was to all, the beast responded, approaching +him though somewhat cautiously. Stafford sent for water, and finally the +dog lapped it from a pail in quantities which told a story. Dumb animal +though it was upon which they were gazing the onlookers could not but +sympathize with its evident past distress and recognize what had been +the natural consequence. Stafford rose and drew a long breath of relief. +Assuredly he had good reason. The chance of hydrophobia was past. "The +dog is not mad," he said. "He was only starving and crazed with thirst +and raging blindly at everything and anybody. I don't blame the +unreasoning beast. How did it happen?" + +The whole thing was soon made clear. The dog, a dappled monster Ulm, or +Siberian bloodhound, had been shipped from San Francisco to the East by +an owner to whom the hound was as the apple of his eye. It had been +confined in the forward baggage car the man in charge of which had been +ill during the train's imprisonment and had forgotten the beast +entirely. The car had not been opened before and the imprisoned animal +crazed by thirst and hunger, had gone practically insane with suffering +and, upon the opening of the door, had leaped out furiously, in pursuit +of the first object upon which it could vent its fury. One man's neglect +had resulted in something very close to tragedy. + +Now the dog was fawning at Stafford's feet. He patted it on the head and +the beast followed him into the baggage car again where it lay down +contentedly. There was no thought of killing it now. As one man said: +"We may be all going mad ourselves before we get out of this." But he +created no apprehension. + +Stafford returned to his car and another examination of his hurt was +made. The punctures in his arm were treated by the doctor, to avoid all +chances, as he said, and the episode of the dog was ended. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SIREN + + +The startling episode of the attack of the dog had not sufficed to +distract Colonel Livingston's regard from his manifest duty as guide, +philosopher and friend to all the incarcerated wayfarers. He was too old +a campaigner for that. After the confusion had ceased and comment on the +stirring incident had died away, he looked about in austere +contemplation. His eyes rested upon the Conductor and Porter, who were +discussing something together at the end of the car. He acted promptly. + +"Here," he called out, cheerfully but imperatively, "if you think that +this train crew has but one sort of responsibility just now, you are +mistaken. Passengers must, under the circumstances, have even more +attention than usual. They must be entertained. You must each tell a +story. Mr. Conductor, I call upon you first." + +The conductor was mightily embarrassed. Evidently story-telling was not +his specialty. Recognizing, however, the fact that there was nothing +for him but submission to the inflexible Colonel, he succumbed, red in +the face and twisting nervously his short mustache. + +"I'm not much at telling anything," he managed to explain, "and don't +believe I have any story of my own that would be worth while, but I +never hear the whistle cut loose that I don't think of what a man I met +in San Francisco told me of what has been going on in one of the big +cities, and may be going on yet for all I know. I haven't been East of +Denver for a long time--that's the end of my run--and, it seems to me, +that, if what he told me is true, I'd have seen something about it in +the newspapers. Maybe not, though; they miss lots of things. Anyhow, +this is what he told me--and I'll try to tell it just as he did, even +using some of his big words, about what has been happening with a kind +of big whistle to help sailors which they call, + + THE SIREN + +Half a mile off shore, an adjunct of the light-house, was the Siren, +friend of mariners and enemy of all the rest of mankind. When the fog +came upon the face of the waters and steamers and sailing vessels, +creeping fearfully about in all directions, were in danger of collision, +with resultant horrors, and shrieked out their apprehensions in strident +whistlings, the Siren responded through the opaque waste with a warning +howl, telling each seaman where he was and where was safety and where +was death. It was a howl of the pitch and key best adapted for reaching +a great distance and served its purpose well, yet it was doleful as a +sound from the tomb or the wail of a lost soul with a bass voice. But +little cared the fog-fretted captains or their crews or passengers for +the lugubriousness of the Siren's call. As long as the notes of the +misnamed fog-horn indicated the path to safety they cared nothing for +the quality of the note. + +In the city which stood beside the shore, the case was different. People +recognized the fact that the great water highways must be made safe and +that mariners must be protected, but the burden of the Siren was hard to +bear. Little attention had been paid to its sound at first but the +constant iteration had told upon mind and body as tells the constant +falling of a single drop of water upon the head. People were seriously +affected. In the foggy season strong men became fretful and impatient +and weak women were compelled to seek the country. The whole city was +threatened with an attack of nervous debility. All night long, and +sometimes late into the forenoon, the fog would hang stubbornly above +the harbor, and all night long and far into the daylight, the Siren +would groan and groan while the people raved. Sanitariums did a thriving +business. Some sort of climax was approaching when Hannibal Perkins +appeared from the suburbs upon the scene. + +Hannibal Perkins was a young man about twenty-one years of age. He was +born "down East" as he explained, and was tall and gaunt, with pleasant +blue eyes and a soft voice. He was ambitious and possessed of an +inventive genius which he wished to cultivate. He had graduated from the +city high school and desired now to spend two or three years in a famous +scientific academy, but could not gratify his wish, because of relative +poverty. He helped his father in the work of a small truck farm just +outside the city, but there was small yearly surplus to aid in the +realization of Hannibal's hopes and plans. There was stuff in the youth, +though. Regretting but not dismayed, Hannibal worked doggedly, ever +planning as to how he might raise honestly the needed money. The little +farm lay close beside the shore and at night the youth's thoughts were +frequently disturbed, for the Perkin's family got the full benefit of +the Siren's groans. + +Not only was Hannibal Perkins an inventor, but he had a musical gift as +well. He played the violin with skill and feeling, and had studied with +an excellent teacher, a friend of the family who had become interested +in Hannibal and given him lessons gratis. He possessed an exquisite ear +and it is doubtful if in all the city there was a person who suffered +more from the Siren's dismal cry than did this robust young man. Night +after night he would toss about in his bed and but endure. "Is there no +way of stopping it," he thought. "Cannot the same end be attained in +some less melancholy and devastating way?" Unable to sleep regularly, at +last, in desperation he set his wits to work. + +Reading a scientific magazine one day, a single sentence impressed +itself upon Hannibal Perkin's memory: "It is a well known fact that a +musical sound can be heard distinctly at a greater distance than can an +unmusical one." Hannibal pondered much. + +One night, either because his nerves chanced to be a little more nearly +on edge than usual or because the Siren chanced to be in good working +order, the sounds which came from the outer harbor seemed to Hannibal +more than ordinarily loud and mournful and appalling. He raged +helplessly. "What need of so much noise, and such a noise!" he fumed, +but, sobering in temper with reflection, tried to content himself with +muttering resignedly: "I suppose it's necessary that the thing should be +heard as far away as possible,"--then checked his muttering suddenly. +The sentence in the scientific periodical had recurred to him. "It is a +well known fact that a musical sound can be heard distinctly at a +greater distance than an unmusical one." He rose from his bed and sat +silent, with wrinkled brow. Gradually the wrinkles disappeared and a +light came into the young man's eyes. He sprang to his feet, giving vent +as he did so to the single, all unstudied, expression "B'gosh!" He had +learned it when a boy "down East" while working in the fields with the +hired man. + +For the next two weeks Hannibal Perkins did little labor on the farm. +His time was spent from daylight to dark in a small lean-to which served +the double purpose of woodshed and workship. Then for another week, +he was in town studying the mechanism of the great church +organs--instruments with which he was already tolerably familiar--and +consulting with organ-builders and other craftsmen. The fourth week was +spent in the little shop again. + +It was the beginning of one of the foggiest months in the year that +Hannibal Perkins, hat in hand, somewhat abashed, but resolute, entered +the office of the mayor of the city. He looked curiously upon the man +seated at his desk. He saw a person of apparently strong physique, but +thin and pale and with glittering eyes, the eyes of a victim of +insomnia. The mayor wheeled about in his chair. + +"What do you want?" he asked peevishly. + +It was not a pleasant reception but, as a matter of fact, the man +ordinarily affable was nervous and consequently irritable. Hannibal +resolved not to appear abashed. + +"It's about the Siren," he said. + +"What!" The mayor was all interest now. "What about the Siren?" + +"I want to suggest a means for getting rid of the awful sounds which +come over the water every night; to get rid of them so that the people +of this city can sleep again." + +The mayor stared at his visitor for a moment or two and then spoke +solemnly: + +"Young man if you can do what you propose you are not unlikely to take +my place in this seat, some day. You will be the most popular man in the +city. Look at me! I weighed two hundred and ten pounds when the Siren +was first placed in the harbor. Now I weigh a scant one hundred and +fifty-six. There are thousands of others who have suffered in the same +way--insomnia, shattered nerves and all that sort of thing--and the +situation is growing worse instead of better. Only the stolid and dull +are unaffected. Talk about American restlessness and excitability! Why, +what has been in the past will be calm philosophy compared with what +will come in the future when Sirens are established in every harbor of +the country. Of course, young man, I know that you're only a dreamer, a +would-be inventor--you have the big full eyes of an inventor--but I +don't feel like being impatient with any one whose efforts are bent in a +direction as laudable as are yours. Tell me what your particular dream +is." And the mayor leaned back wearily. + +"But I'm not a dreamer!" exclaimed Hannibal excitedly. "I know what I +have been doing and what I'm talking about. I tell you I can get rid of +the ghastly noise made by the Siren and yet have the vessels warned in a +fog as well as they are now. Yes, I'll warn them at even a greater +distance. More than that," and Hannibal began to get excited, "more than +that, I'll transform what is now a source of agony to one of pleasure. I +guarantee it. I can explain my plan to you and you'll say it's feasible, +sir; I know you will!" and the young man paused, out of breath. + +The mayor's face had taken on a look of patient endurance. "Go ahead," +he said, "and show me how the wheels work in your head. I hope it will +not take long." + +Hannibal paid no attention to the sarcasm. He was too full of his +subject: "I tell you, Mr. Mayor, that I've solved the problem. I've +spent weeks and weeks upon it and at last I've got it. I can make it as +clear as day to you. First I want you to hear this from one of the +leading scientific magazines of the world," and he drew forth a clipping +and began to read-- + +"It is a well known fact that a musical sound can be heard distinctly +at a greater distance than can an unmusical one." + +[Illustration: "THE MAYOR HAD BEEN GETTING INTERESTED"] + +"There," continued Hannibal triumphantly, as he restored the clipping to +his pocket, "you see the point; you can hear a musical sound at a +greater distance than you can hear an unmusical one. The dismal wails of +the Siren are not musical, but why not make them so? There's a way and I +have found it." + +The mayor was sitting erect in his chair, now. He was becoming +interested. "Go on," he said. + +"Well," replied Hannibal. "There's not much more to say at present. I've +given you the general idea. The principle is sound and I know how to put +the design into execution." + +"Are you sure," said the mayor, "are you very sure?" + +"I am," responded Hannibal. + +"Well, what do you want?" + +"I want the privilege of putting new works inside the Siren, that's +all." + +"But the Siren is under the control of the United States Government. How +can we get permission for the experiment?" + +"Oh," said Hannibal, cheerfully, "I've thought all that out. The +government usually pays attention to the advice of business men of any +locality where it has established something in their interest. The +vessel men here are the ones who have influence in the case. Get the +vessel men to endorse it and the government will consent to the +experiment." + +The mayor had been getting more and more interested as all the bearings +of the case became clear to him. The thing seemed practicable, and what +would not follow should it really prove a success! It would redound to +his credit that he had recognized the plan which gave the city peace. He +reached a decision promptly. + +"I'll help you," he declared, "I'll call a meeting of the vessel men for +to-morrow night. You'll have to be there to explain the thing as you +have to me--more fully though. Does that suit you?" + +Hannibal departed walking on air. Could he convince the vessel men! He +had not the slightest doubt of it. + +He neither ate nor slept much from the time he left the mayor's office, +until on the evening of the next day when he entered the hall where the +vessel men were assembled, the mayor with them. + +The mayor took the chair, called the meeting to order, explained briefly +the proposition which had been made to him, and said that he had +thought it best to refer the suppliant to those most vitally interested +in the matter. The inventor was present and would make his own +explanation. + +Hannibal took the platform tremblingly. He had never addressed an +audience in his life, and his knees shook and there was a lump in his +throat. At first he could not articulate, but when a bluff, red-faced +old mariner, taking pity on him, called out--"Don't be scared, young +man; take your time," he recovered himself and began stammeringly. +Gradually the words came more freely. He believed in his scheme, and +that gave him strength. He warmed to his subject and almost forgot where +he was. He became eloquent, in an inventor's way. He described the +present horrors of the Siren, the condition of the people, and the +prejudice that was growing up in consequence against anything marine, a +prejudice which might in time affect seriously the shipping interest. + +Then he told how much farther a musical sound could travel than could an +unmusical one. Then he outlined vaguely the value and nature of his +invention which would substitute one sound for the other, and make of +the Siren a blessing on land as well as on the water. He carried his +audience with him and, when he closed his address, flushed and earnest, +his hand was grasped heartily by a large proportion of those present. +There was a brief debate, but it was nearly all one way, and it was +decided, that the Presidents of the Vessel Owners Association and the +Tug Owners Association should form a committee of two, to proceed at +once to Washington and there secure from the right department permission +for the trying of Hannibal's experiment. Furthermore there was +contributed on the spot a sum sufficient, in Hannibal's estimation, for +the execution of his plan. Within two weeks the committee had made its +trip and returned with the government's consent to the undertaking. +Hannibal went to work. + +It was no simple task that now faced the young man, albeit the greatest +obstacle was just removed. Sanguine as most inventors are, supplied with +funds sufficient for his purpose, unlimited as to time, he yet realized +a certain gravity to the situation. He rented a wing of an old +warehouse, hired capable mechanics as assistants and plunged into his +labor, feverishly. + +What is known as the "orchestrion" is a gigantic musical machine popular +in summer gardens, restaurants and various similar places of public +resort. Perforated sheets of metal are slipped into the machine, one +after another, and different tunes are played according to the +perforations in the metal. The basis of Hannibal Perkin's idea was the +orchestrion, with the addition of certain adjuncts of the fog-horn, to +secure a volume of sound equaling that which nightly woke the echoes and +everything else. Of course he could not himself manufacture perforated +plates of the size he required, but a special order to a great firm in +the business solved this part of the problem and a huge set of circular +plates, twenty-five feet in diameter, was soon delivered at his shop. +The machine itself was all the work of Hannibal and his two assistants. +The day came when the thing was done and the monster orchestrion, or +whatever it might be called, was loaded on a barge and towed to the +light-house where the siren was about to be deposed. To make the proper +attachments for the orchestrion--which did not get its power from +winding up in the ordinary way, but by a steam arrangement--was a work +of time, for just here was the most difficult part of the undertaking, +and where the inventive genius of Hannibal Perkins shone out most +brilliantly. It was a new departure but it was all right in principle, +as Hannibal had maintained, and the day came when he announced that, +when the fog fell that night, a new Siren, one with a voice such as was +never heard before on sea or shore, would call across the waters to +belated vessel men. + +Night came and the fog came with it. Dimmer and dimmer grew the flashes +from the light-house lantern until, at last, they could no longer be +distinguished from the shore, and then, to the people of the great city +came a sensation. + + "Chippie, get your hair cut, hair cut, hair cut, + Chippie, get your hair cut, hair cut short." + +Loud and clear from away out in the harbor came the notes of the +rollicking tune, once so generally popular. The atmosphere was fairly +saturated with it. Never had even the howl of the detested Siren so +thoroughly permeated every outdoor nook and cranny of the town. The +moving multitudes on the brilliantly lighted streets paused and +listened, and as they stood there, lost and curious, the same sweet but +tremendous voice informed them affably: + + "There'll be a hot time, + In the old town to-night." + +Evidently this spirit of the waters, was of a lively, not to say +hilarious, disposition--at least that was the first impression +given--but as the hours passed, the music changed in character, and it +finally dawned upon the populace that there was method in the madness of +the Siren--for the news had flown rapidly of what the wonder +was--gentler airs succeeded until the hour when the young men calling +should go home, when apparently impersonating all the young women in the +city, the Siren spoke softly: + + "Bid me good-bye and go!" + +and, later, as the time came when erring heads of families might be +lingering out too late for their own good, the mentor started in with-- + + "Oh, Willie, we have missed you!" + +and, a little later, after apparent consideration, wailed out +despairingly: + + "Oh, father, dear father, come home with me now." + +It was charming! Still later, came soothing, familiar airs in a minor +key, such as were sleep-encouraging, and there was no variation from +this until six a.m., when there was an outbreak: + + "I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up this + morning! + The sergeant's worse than the private, + The captain's worse than the sergeant! + The major's worse than the captain, + The colonel's the worst of 'em all! + I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up to-day!" + +Ringing out over all the city was the reveille, but, as if in drowsy +answer came a little later, almost like an echo--the lazy, listless, + + "Let me dream again." + +Evidently not what was approved of, for, sharply and indignantly, +followed the peremptory demand to-- + + "Take your clothes and go." + +And so, until the fog lifted, continued the interesting programme of the +Siren. The people were delighted. No more was the name of the "Siren" a +misnomer. The newspapers were full of praise of Hannibal Perkins, the +inventor, and a dream, for once, was realized. Improvements were made by +the elated genius. People in the city soon perceived that certain airs +were played only at certain hours, so that one could tell what time of +night it was while lying comfortably in bed. The invention was +recognized as a boon to the community. The Board of Trade voted a neat +lump sum to Hannibal Perkins, he was elected member of numerous +scientific and musical societies, and negotiations were begun with the +government looking to the introduction of the Siren in harbors +everywhere. + +Now comes reference to the action of a law of nature which has always +been accounted curious, that law which is in direct contradiction of the +old and popular saying that one cannot have too much of a good thing. +The months passed, months of triumph and elation for Hannibal Perkins, +and, at first, of enjoyment for those on land. Then in the city came a +gradual change, though Hannibal, in the light-house, was not aware of +it. There arose an anti-Siren party, and a clamorous one! It was the old +story--they were "tired" of the same old tunes. They were all antiquated +things it was declared. It was the result of that quality in the human +ear and human nerves which enables them to endure the continual passing +of a railroad train, but not the too frequent repetition of a musical +air. Even an effort to remedy this fault did not avail. There came two +dread November weeks of almost continual fog, day and night, and, as +the Siren gave four tunes an hour for variety's sake, it necessarily +played ninety-six tunes a day, and there weren't enough popular airs in +existence to keep this up without constant duplication, or worse! A new +form of nervousness was seizing upon the multitude. Even the mayor, who +had grown fat, was getting thin again. + +On the other hand the Siren had a powerful supporting force in the +officers and crews of every vessel entering the harbor. Most delightful +was it to those gallant seamen, when the fog lay dense and sinister, to +hear, at a greater distance from land than ever before, the sounds which +guided them to safety and, at the same time, to recognize and be cheered +by the notes of some familiar air. They heard the Siren only +occasionally and to them there was no monotony. The whole shipping +interest arose figuratively in arms against those who objected to the +new order of things. + +And so the case stands now. The government is considering the matter. +Doubtless the Perkins Siren will, in the end, be adopted--with +modifications and restrictions. Hannibal Perkins is pondering over the +question of why people get so maddeningly tired of a piece of music, +from some favorite of the operas down to the latest bit of "rag-time." +They do not get tired of bread and beefsteak! Is the palate wiser than +the ear? Even Hannibal Perkins cannot answer that question. Human nature +is odd. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE PORTER'S STORY + + +From the beginning of the train's delay the porter of the sleeping car +had attracted attention unostentatiously. This expression perhaps best +describes the man's demeanor. He was, apparently, not much over thirty +years of age, and a white man, but for that indefinable something which +manifests itself in the bearing of a human being who, by unfortunate +stress of circumstances, is fighting the world at a disadvantage. He was +a blonde man, six feet in height. There was to his bearing a certain +dignity. Yet, he was the porter of the car! It followed, as a practical +certainty, that he was of African descent, however much of his blood had +come in the intermingling with a preponderence in favor of the +Anglo-Saxon. + +He looked like a Viking, one of those who sometimes sailed down to +Africa, after ravaging the Seine Valley, and taking toll of the +monasteries and castles of the Spanish Peninsula en route,--but +certainly not like one whose real ancestors, those who made the man, +could have been African. The Colonel had recognized the fact that this +big blonde man was one of Nature's mistakes in production under too +sinister surroundings, and saw, too, that there was a story which might +be told readily and impulsively and forcefully, and, perhaps most +interestingly, under some momentum of the hour. He decided this to be +the psychological moment. + +"Will you not give us a story, now, John?" he said--he had learned the +porter's name the day before, but half hesitated at the +familiarity--"I've a fancy you may have more to tell than any of the +rest of us. Will you let us know what it is?" + +The porter glanced at him curiously but not in any protesting way. It +could be seen that he recognized in the other man, a sympathizing human +being and he rose to the occasion. + +"I will tell you the story," he said, slowly, "though, really, save as +possibly amusing somebody for the moment, I scarcely see the object, but +it may be that it will afford me a little relief personally. Come to +think of it, I don't know that I've ever had a chance to tell my story +to intelligent human beings under anything like fair auspices. I'm going +to tell it simply and truly. I'll leave the verdict to you. Your verdict +cannot help me any, for you are as weak as I am in this case, but this +is the story: + + HIS PROBLEM + +Is it well for me that I am a product of a University, that I am what I +am? + +Some time ago I read an exceedingly clever poem in some magazine, +describing the sufferings of Pierrot, that inimitable and fascinating +French modification of Harlequin, ever vainly seeking his elusive +Columbine. + +"I, who am Pierrot, pity me! Oh pity me!" he cries in his helpless +desire for sympathy. Sometimes I feel like Pierrot, though my suffering +is not as his. + +I hesitate, somehow, at telling my own story lest I be misunderstood or +offend in some manner. I have some courage and I'm not asking sympathy +in any weak or maudlin way. I am but stating a case, a case with a +problem attached and one which I have, so far, been unable to solve, +though the quality of my life must depend upon the nature of the +solution. I am neither whining nor begging. The story may or may not +possess a degree of interest. I wish I could tell it better. + +I am thirty-four years of age, and I think I can fairly say, am well +educated; so thorough was my college course and so diligently did I +apply myself, that I excel most graduates in the extent of my real +acquirements. I have forgotten neither my classics nor my mathematics +and I read and speak French and German fluently. I keep myself familiar +with what occurs in the field of literature. I chance to have a +retentive memory and my perceptions are, it seems to me, at least +reasonably keen. + +I am six feet in height and, absurd as it may seem in me to say it, am a +well formed, well set up man. I have clean cut features, rather aquiline +than otherwise, grey eyes, light hair, which curls slightly, and a fair +complexion. I am an athlete, trained from boyhood, and have borne +myself, I hope, as a man should in encounters in the southwest, where +brawn has for the moment counted for more than brains. I describe myself +thus directly, but not conceitedly, because I want to be known as you +see me, for just what I am. To discredit myself unjustly in the least, +to tell less than the truth, would mar the justice of the premises upon +which I make my case and from which I make clear, or at least try to +make clear, the nature of the problem which has proved too difficult for +me. + +I have had ambitions, hopes and love. I have known men and women. I have +become familiar with the affairs of the world. I am naturally of a +buoyant and hopeful disposition and yet I, a strong man, am to-day +perplexed, sad, almost hopeless. I have no incumbrances. A healthy, +educated man of thirty-four, with no burden of the ordinary sort, and +yet disheartened! I can imagine you saying, with an inflection of either +pity or contempt. Well, what I have told of myself is the truth and I +must take the consequences. + +I was born in one of the southern states. One of my grandfathers was a +man of standing, and one of my grandmothers was, I am told, a very +beautiful woman. My father was also a man of note, a distinguished +officer in the civil war who did well in battle. My mother was a woman +of exceptional charms of person and character, but died when I was a +mere child. I was educated by a wealthy brother of my father, who +chanced to take an interest in me. Until the age of twelve I was the +almost constant companion of his own son. + +At the age of twelve, my cousin and I who had been so much together were +separated, he going to a school in one of the great cities, I to one in +a smaller town. After graduation at school we were each sent to college. +My cousin went to one of the great universities and I was sent to one of +the smaller colleges of the country, but one where the curriculum was +extensive and the requirements severe. I studied hard and graduated in +the same year with my cousin. We met again at the old homestead and I +found that, because of my close attention to my studies, perhaps, too, +because of a somewhat quicker apprehension, I excelled him decidedly in +acquirements. We passed a not unpleasant month together, hunting and +fishing in the old way, but, somehow, it was not the same as it had been +when we were boys together. I noticed a change in my cousin's demeanor +toward me. His manner was not unkindly, for he is one of the best and +most generous of men, but there was a certain change, a certain distance +of air which made it plain to me that we could never again be to each +other what we had been as boys in the past. We separated each to go out +into the world to struggle for himself; I, alone; he, with the +influential family and a host of influential friends behind him. I have +never seen him since. + +Equipped as I was the natural course for me to pursue seemed to be to +adopt for a time the work of teaching, not that I inclined toward it, +but because it afforded opportunity to acquire a little capital which +might enable me to take up a profession. I secured a school without much +difficulty in a thriving southwestern town, and at the end of a course +of three years had saved several hundred dollars. With the money thus +obtained, I graduated at a famous law school, after which I studied +diligently for a year in the office of a prominent attorney. I was +clerk, porter, office boy, everything about the office, but the +distinguished lawyer did me the honor, at the end of the year, to say +that I was the most thorough student he had ever assisted and prophesied +flatteringly as to my future. I was admitted to the bar with compliments +from the examining judges as to my knowledge of the law. I at once +established an office in a town of about two thousand people, where the +outlook seemed exceptionally promising. I was entirely unknown in the +little city, but for two years I prospered beyond my expectations. I +knew the law and, as the event showed, I was strong with juries, +possessing the power of interesting and winning the confidence of men to +an exceptional degree. I won a number of cases, some of them important +ones. I became known in the town and in the surrounding district as a +public speaker of force and eloquence. Upon the lecture platform or +political rostrum I felt as potent and at ease as in the court room. My +future seemed assured. I found friends among the best people, my income +was more than sufficient for my needs; in my rooms I was accumulating +books of the world's literature. My law library was the best in the +county. In all things I was flourishing and the world looked bright to +me. + +One day there came to the town wherein I had established myself a young +man who had been in college with me. I was glad to see him and did what +I could for him during his stay, though we were unlike in temperament +and tastes, and his associates and friends had all been different from +mine. He soon left the place, and, not long after, I noticed a +surprising change in the manner of the people toward me. I no longer +received invitations to dinner nor to social gatherings. No reason was +given me for the freezing indifference with which I was treated by my +former friends. What was, from one point of view, a matter of as much +importance, my business began to drop off; men who had placed their +legal affairs in my hands no longer sought me for advice and only an +occasional petty case in some justice's court came to afford me a +livelihood. After a vain struggle with these intolerable conditions I +gave up. I closed my office and left the city. + +It was early in June, that year when I left the place where I had hoped +to become a lifelong resident and useful citizen. + +I drifted east and found myself in Boston. There I met two young men, +seniors in college, but poor, who had engaged themselves as men of all +work--partly as a midsummer lark, but chiefly for the money to be +gained--to work in a great summer hotel in the mountains. A third man +was needed, and they asked me if I would not go with them. I was ready +for anything, and accepted the invitation. + +The hotel was one of the largest in the mountains, and the numerous +guests included wealthy and distinguished families from all parts of the +country. That we were college-bred men and had students' ambitions also +became known, and it came to pass, at last, that our duties for the day +accomplished, we appeared in evening dress, and joined in the evening's +amusements, laughed at in a friendly way, and jesting ourselves in +return. + +I cannot go into further details of the happenings of that summer at the +mountain resort, where all was healthy and healthful except my own +mentality, which had been made what it was by conditions over which I +had no control. I prayed, and prayer, while it strengthened me, did not +help me bow to the injustice under which I suffered. I thought and tried +to find what a logical brain, a broad view of things, and a keen +intelligence might do, and that did not help me. Ever, ever came the +same inevitable deduction. I was a hunted wretch, pursued by a social +and partly natural law, driven ever into a cul de sac, into a side gorge +in the mountains of life, a short gorge with precipitous walls on either +side and ending suddenly and briefly in a wall as perpendicular and high +and smooth. True, I had for the moment escaped, for the instant I was +free, but I knew that soon, inevitably, the cordon would hem me in and +that I would be at the mercy of the pursuers--the unmalicious but +instinctively impelled pursuers. Then came a respite from the torturing +thought, a forgetfulness for the moment, a forgetfulness to be paid for. + +I was the man with the boats and, as well the guide who conducted +individuals or parties to and from all the picturesque or curious spots +of the wild region round about the summer resort which shrewd +capitalists had implanted in the heart of nature. So it came that I met +all, or nearly all the guests, groups who had chaffed at me, and yet, +knowing my status, made me one of them. Strong young men and good ones +made me a comrade, fathers and mothers of broods of little children +leaned on me, and at last and worse in the end, the occasional woman who +thought for herself, knew nature for herself and wanted but to go out +alone to meet her sister, that same Nature, became my companion. There +was one among those who, to me, was above the other women. There was one +among those--may the good God ever have her in his keeping--who, from no +thought or fault of hers, has given me the greatest vision of happiness +and also such sorrow as few men know. + +Then I seemed to live for the first time and now it is still a thought +deep in my mind that it was my only taste of real life when I held +communion on lake and shore in that enchanted summer with the woman who +held my heart in her white hands. No doubt I was guilty, frightfully +guilty. What right has a pariah in a world of caste? But I am a human. I +drifted and drifted. I cannot analyze my own feelings at the time. I +knew that I was good and honest and as real in mind as she and yet, even +then, I think I felt as if I were some vagrant who had wandered into a +church and was inanely fumbling at the altar-cloth. + +Like every other rainbow that ever spanned my miserable sky it +disappeared, not gradually, as do other rainbows when the clouds part +slowly and the sun shines out between them, but suddenly, leaving +blackness. One wild but simply honest letter I wrote telling all things, +and then came silence. There was only the information that one fair +guest of the great summer resort had departed suddenly. + +Yet in my letter I had told of nothing but a life of steadfast honor, +principle, and high ambition and endeavor; I began to lose heart. I am a +wanderer. What am I to do? I am a man without a country as much as was +poor Nolan in Edward Everett Hale's immortal story, though unlike Nolan, +I am blameless of even a moment's lapse of patriotism. I am without a +country because my country will not give me what it gives to other men. +I am even without a race, for that to which I really belong neglects me +and with that into which my own would thrust me I have nothing in +common. The presence of a faint strain of alien blood is killing me by +inches. + +I am not black, I am white. Does one part of, perhaps, some African +chieftain's blood offset thirty-one of white blood from good ancestors? +I do not believe in miscegenation. There is some subtle underlying law +of God and nature which forbids the close contact in any way of the +different races. It is to me a horror. But I am not black, I am white. A +negro woman is to me as she is to any other white man. A negro man is to +me as of a strange race. A white man is to me my brother. All my +thoughts, all my yearnings, are to be with him, to talk with him, to +sympathize with him in all the affairs of life, to help him and have him +help me, to go to war with him, if need be, to die by his side. I am a +white man. But there is that one thirty-second of pariah blood. "Pity +me, oh pity me." + +As I have said, I began to lose heart. There is no need to tell all the +story. I remember it all. One or two incidents suffice to show the way I +have traveled. + +Once in an eastern city, I obtained work as a brakeman on a freight +train on the railway. At first my fellow workers received me well, named +me Byron, some knowing me among them, with rude but kindly chaffing at +my pale face and studious habits, for when not at work I had ever a book +in my hand. + +One day, while we were waiting on a siding near a small station, a tramp +recognized me. He was a man I had defended in court for some small +offense, in the distant western town where I practiced law. I had him +kept out of jail by my pleading. I had believed that his arrest and +trial would be a lesson such as would keep him from the idle and vicious +ways he was just beginning to follow at that time. + +The tramp rode a few miles on our train. After that the train crew +ceased to consort with me. They looked sullenly upon me and muttered +among themselves when I came near them. The engineer looked the other +way when he had to speak to me. His face was grim and sad, as well, but +he looked the other way. There was no outbreak, but I could not endure +my position. I left the railroad work as soon as our train arrived in +the city where the company made its headquarters. + +Once again, some years after the railway episode, I thought to work on a +street-car line. I applied for the position of motorman, and was well +received by the superintendent to whom I reported after he had in reply +to my letter, asked me to call at his office. I gave, at his request, +the names of a half a dozen responsible men as references as to my +character and responsibility. I arranged with a security company for +giving the required bond, and was told that as soon as favorable answers +were received from my friends I would be put to practice work; I felt +assured of a position, laborious and nerve testing, it is true, but +respectable and reasonable well paid. + +After two weeks I called upon the superintendent again, although he had +not written, as he promised to do, after hearing from the men I had +referred him to. + +He was a hard man of business, that superintendent, but he spoke to me +kindly, regretfully, almost shamefacedly. The testimonials to my +character and life were, he said, very flattering to me. No one had said +anything but good of me. But it would never do, he explained, for me to +be set to work on the road. The men would be sure to find out the truth +about me, sooner or later, and then the officials of the road would be +blamed. There was sure to be trouble. Personally, the superintendent +had, he said, no "race prejudices," but he could not answer for the +feelings of others less free from the influence of tradition and natural +aversion. + +I stood silent while the man of my own race calmly, even tenderly, waved +me back into the ranks of a people of whose blood a few drops only run +in my veins. So another gate was closed. So I was once more forced into +the narrow bounds of an invisible prison. + +My mother had one-sixteenth of negro blood in her veins and was a slave. +Now what explains my most unfortunate condition? Is it because this +ancestor had this trace of the blood of another race, and that I have +one thirty-second part of the same blood, though I chance to be whiter +than most Caucasians? Well, God made the races. Is it because this +ancestor was a slave? So were the Britons slaves of the Romans. My +father was a descendant of some slave. He is not responsible for the +chase of his mother in ancient woods and for her capture by some fierce +avaricious Roman legionary who knew the value of a breeder of sturdy +Teutonic brawn in making Roman highways. It was through no fault of mine +that the Arab trader chased my great-great-great-grandmother or +grandfather down in the jungle and sold her to the sallow-faced slave +dealer who brought her to America. The blood of my father's ancestors +became intermixed with that of the captors. My father's race became +free. So has mine. The difference is but in time. Why is it, then, that +I am as I am? I do not want to become a barber, nor a porter, nor an +attendant in a Turkish bath, nor to serve other men. I do not want to +work upon the streets, though I am not afraid of manual labor nor do I +count it dishonorable. But I am a cultivated man, a man skilled in a +profession where intelligence and training are required, a man of moral +character and refined tastes. I am starving for the companionship of my +own kind. Brain and heart, I am starving. What am I to do? + +Pity me, good people, Oh, pity me! + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE PURPLE STOCKING + + +There was unaccustomed silence for a time after the Porter finished +speaking. He left the car at once, perturbed, it may be, by his own +disclosure of his condition and emotions. Those who had listened to him, +whatever may have been their views concerning one of the great problems +of the age, could not but feel a certain sympathy for the man condemned +to be thus isolated--the man without a race. That his case might be +somewhat exceptional detracted in no way from its curious pathos. It was +recognized as one of the tragedies of human life as it is, and the +recital had induced a thoughtful mood among the Porter's audience. What +should be the attitude of the ordinary man or woman in a case like this? +And, seeking honestly in their own minds, those pondering could not +answer the question satisfactorily, either to judgment or to conscience. +By what law should they be guided? + +The Colonel was among the thinkers, but he rose superior, as usual. +That gilded optimist wanted not even reflection among the snowbound. Had +his company been of males exclusively he might even have been tempted to +introduce the flowing bowl, but for his knowledge of the inevitable +depressing aftermath. He wanted but carelessness and distraction and +forgetfulness until the time of pale monotony should end. Now he was +tempted to an act most ruthless and unconjugal. + +His glance was toward his wife, whom he adored openly, and toward whom +he, at all times, showed the greatest consideration, but who, through +some prescience, was fidgeting a little. + +"Madam," he began pompously, slapping his hand upon his chest, "the +husband is the head of the family--he really isn't," he added in an +audible aside, "but we'll assume it for the present. Madam, he is the +head of the family and must be obeyed. I order, command and direct you +to tell a story; if need be I will even abdicate for the moment and so +far humiliate myself as to implore you to tell a story. Tell about that +affair which took place at the Grand Cattaraugus, when we were stopping +there last summer." + +The pleasant-faced lady appeared hesitant: "But it's almost a naughty +story," she protested; "it's about a stocking, and, oh dear! there's +something about a"--and she blushed prettily, as is always the case when +a middle-aged woman thus demeans herself, "there's an ankle in it, too." + +"Nonsense," retorted the Colonel. "Do you mean in the story or in the +stocking? In either case an ankle is all right. Go ahead, my dear." + +Mrs. Livingston yielded: "After all," she said, "it's not so very wicked +and the story is chiefly about matching colors, which is a subject not +unlikely to interest ladies. Anyhow, it interested me in this instance. +I know all the shocking circumstances, and, since I've gone so far I may +as well be reckless. I suppose the story might be called + + THE PURPLE STOCKING + +Maxwell, a gentleman stopping at the hotel, was bored. There existed no +particular excuse for his frame of mind, but the fact remained. He had +fairly earned a vacation, but when the time came for escape from the +midsummer heat of his offices he had found himself with no well-defined +idea of where his outing should be spent. Circumstances rendered it +necessary that it should be a brief one this time, else he would have +known what to do with himself, for the man knew the Rocky Mountains. As +it was, he had but taken train for one of the nearby summer resorts, +where the Grand Cattaraugus caravansary, consisting, as those places do, +of an enormous piazza with a hotel attached to its rear, loomed up +beside and overlooked the pretty hill-surrounded lake with its blue +waters, narrow beach and many pleasure boats. It was not a bad place and +Maxwell had decided that it would be endurable for a week or two, +especially after the arrival of his friend, Jim Farrington, who had +promised to follow and loaf genially with him. + +But first impressions are not always final. Maxwell found the hotel full +of people, mostly women. It was a fashionable place, and the women were +fair to look upon, but there were not men enough to go round. There were +two or three dowagers who knew Maxwell and, seek to avoid it as he +might, he was soon generally introduced and his eligibility made widely +known. Then came monotonous attention and, for his own peace, the man, +who hadn't come after women, was driven to daily exile either to his +room or to the lake or hills. The elder ladies with daughters hunted him +as hounds might hunt a rabbit. He resolved promptly upon escape and, +within a week, an afternoon found him engaged in packing for that +purpose. + +His laundry had just come in and among the articles he picked up first +were a lot of blazing silken handkerchiefs. Colored silk handkerchiefs +were a fad of his in summer. He tossed them idly into his valise when +the color of one of them attracted his attention. + +"I never owned a handkerchief like that," he muttered. + +He raised the article to examine it more closely, and to his amazement +it unfolded and lengthened out. It was not a handkerchief at all. It was +a lady's stocking--a brilliant purple stocking! + +Maxwell wondered. "Washing's been mixed," he said, and then devoted +closer and more earnest attention to his prize. It was a charming +affair, small of foot but not too small otherwise, and possessed, +somehow, an especial symmetry, even in its present state. + +"It's number eight--number three shoe," thought Maxwell, "and it's the +prettiest stocking I ever saw." + +His comment was fully justified. The stocking was a dream in its +department of lingerie. The purple was relieved, from the ankle upward a +little way, by a clocking of snow-white sprays of lilies-of-the-valley, +and the purple itself was of such a hue as to send one dreaming of the +glories of the ancients. It was a wonderful stocking, a fascinating +stocking. It lured like a will-o'-the wisp. + +Maxwell abandoned his packing and sat stroking and admiring the +hypnotizing object. He became vastly interested. "I wonder whom it +belongs to?" he mused. Then--there's no explaining it with authority, +and discreetly--a sudden fancy seized upon him. "I'll not leave +to-night!" he said, "I'll find the owner of that stocking! It will give +me something to do and add a little zest to things. Might as well be +stocking-hunting as anything else. By Jove, what a neat little foot she +must have!" + +The packing was left undone. The man had an object now, one which might +have seemed trivial to the bloodless and unimaginative, but which to him +became a serious matter. Talk about the Round Table fellows after the +Holy Grail or Diogenes after an honest man, they were not in it with +Maxwell! He dawdled and mooned over that stocking and made and unmade +plans. He bribed a gentleman, youthful and dirty, connected with the +laundry department of the hotel, and it came to naught. His gaze was +ever downward. He appeared more frequently on the piazza among the +scores of "porchers" engaged in idle converse there. He strolled along +the little beach, ever with furtive eyes on twinkling feet, and neat +ones he saw galore and stockings rainbow-hued galore, but never a purple +one among them. + +It was the quality of the purple, he decided, which must have so +enthralled him in the first place. He had never seen a purple like it. +He read up on purples. He learned that royal purple is made up of +fifty-five parts red, twelve parts blue and thirty-three parts black, +and concluded that the stocking must be almost a royal purple, so +wonderfully did the white lilies show out against its richness. Tyrian +purple he rejected as being too dull for the comparison. Then he +considered the purple of Amorgos, the wonderfully brilliant color +obtained from the seaweed of the Grecian island, and this met with +greater favor in his eyes. He decided, finally, that the hue of the +stocking was between the royal and the purple of Amorgos, and this +relieved his mind. But this didn't help him to find the girl--and how +vain a thing is even the most beautiful stocking in the world without a +girl attached! + +Then the unexpected happened as usual. There came a lapse in the search. +The cure for Maxwell's dream was homeopathic. Like cures like. One girl +blighted most of interest in the vague search for another. Maxwell was +caught by the concrete. Miss Ward, a guest of the hotel, in company with +her aunt, was not, Maxwell decided, like any of the other women. She was +dignified, but piquant, pretty, certainly, and well educated. Likewise, +she had self-possession and much wit. Maxwell enjoyed her society and +they became close friends. He began to feel as if the world, if hollow, +had at least a substantial crust. He was no longer bored and the +stocking fancy was put aside. + +Then came Farrington. Farrington had spirits. He lightened up the hotel +piazza and flirted with every one, from dowagers down to the little +girls to whom he told liver-colored stories as evening and the gloom +came. He was deeply interested when Maxwell told him of the stocking +and the marvel. He became full of ardor. + +"Don't give up the search!" he expostulated. "Such a stocking as that +must belong to the one woman in four hundred and eighty-three thousand. +Why, it's like finding a nugget in a valley! There's bound to be gold in +the mountains!" + +So the interest of Maxwell became largely revived and his mind was on +stockings when he was not in the company of Miss Ward. One day an +inspiration came to him with the gentle suddenness of a love pat. He +took Farrington into his confidence. That evening on the piazza that +gifted friend adroitly turned the conversation to the subject of +matching goods and colors. + +The debate became most animated. The ladies, one and all, declared that +in the matter of matching things men were scarcely above the beasts that +perish, while as for themselves, there was not a woman, young or old, +among them who was not an adept. Maxwell, who had seemed at first +uninterested, broke into the conversation. + +"I'm not ungallant," he asserted as a preliminary. "When it comes to +gallantry I'll venture to say I'd outdo any medieval troubadour, if I +could only sing and twang a harp, but, though angels can do almost +anything, to tell the truth I'm a shade doubtful concerning their +absolute infallibility in matching hues and fabrics. I've a piece of +silk I'd like matched for my sister, and I hereby, in the presence of +all witnesses, offer a prize of one box of gloves to any lady who will +match it for me within a week," and he produced about six inches +square--thirty-six square inches--of splendid purple silk. + +As the war horse snuffeth the battle and says "Ha! ha!" to the trumpets; +as the sea mew rises from the waves to riot in the spindrift; as the +needle to the pole; as the river to the sea or the cat to the catnip in +wild enthusiasm--so rose the ladies to the silken lure. Match the silk? +Why, the gloves must be distributed among the score! + +And then ensued a busy week. The sample, divided into thirty-six pieces +an inch square, was surrendered. There were trips to the nearest city +and, as excitement grew, even to the metropolis. The afternoon for the +test arrived and Maxwell, seated judicially beside a table on the piazza +and provided with another sample of his silk, awaited with manly +dignity the onslaught of the gathered contestants. + +One by one they came and laid down their little pieces of purple silk; +one by one the samples were compared by the judge with the piece held in +his hand, and, one by one, he passed them back with a regretful and +unnecessarily audible sigh. Last of all came Miss Ward, who had not been +to town and who had, apparently, taken slight interest in the +competition. It was too trivial for her, had been Maxwell's firm +conclusion. Now she approached the table and laid down, as had the +others, a piece of purple silk. Maxwell's heart thumped. There was no +mistaking that wondrous hue! + +"Miss Ward has won the gloves," he said. + +There were congratulations and any amount of fun and curious +speculation. + +That evening Maxwell caught Miss Ward upon the piazza and induced her to +sit with him awhile, to improve his mind, he said. They chatted +indifferently until he took occasion to compliment her upon her success +in matching the purple silk. "You have a wonderful sense of color," he +declared. + +She answered that she had always enjoyed matching things, and then he +ventured to expatiate a little on the particular silk which had been +matched: "What pretty trimming for a hat, or what pretty stockings it +would make," he said. + +She asked him why the nighthawks circling overhead and about gave +utterance to their shrill cries so frequently, and he said he didn't +know. Then they talked about the coming boat race. + +For a week Maxwell's chief occupation was what Farrington described as +"concentrated musing." He walked much. One afternoon he was strolling +along the narrow beach, which lay, a sandy stretch, between the water +and a tree-grown grassy ledge, about fifteen feet in height, which was a +favorite place of rest and outlook for the hotel guests. He was looking +downward, but there came a moment when the heavens fell. Chancing to +look upward to determine if any of the usual idlers there were of a +companionable sort for him, he saw that which turned aside the current +of his life as easily as an avalanche may turn a rivulet. + +There, projecting a little beyond the crest-crowning grass and greenery +of the ledge above, was something trim and gloriously purple and +gloriously perfect. The tan of the neatest of number three shoes blended +upward into the purple paradise, and from the tan seemed growing a snowy +spray of lilies-of-the-valley. Delicate is the subject, but it must be +treated. Delicate is the making of a watch, but we must have watches; +eggs are delicate, but we must eat them; goldfish are delicate, but we +must lift them by hand occasionally. Duty first! + +Perfect the exterior of that wondrous stocking, perfect, absolutely so, +but its contour and its contents! Ah, me! The flat, thin ankle--let +Arabian fillies hide their heads! The even upward swell--just full +enough, just trim enough, revealed, but not in view, as one sees things +by starlight. Ah, me! + +Maxwell's eyes dimmed and he reeled. What is known as locomotor ataxia +smote him there suddenly in his prime and pride of life. Then after a +moment or two a degree of health came back and he turned and retraced +his steps, feebly at first, then more rapidly, and then as hies the +antlered stag. He gained the ledge and followed it and found Miss Ward +seated demurely at its very crest and surrounded by a group of friends. + +Within three months he owned, after the wedding, not merely what was +left of one, but two similar purple stockings, and their contents, +together with, all and singular, the hereditaments and appurtenances +thereunto belonging or in anywise appertaining. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE FATTENING OF PAT + + +The general opinion seemed to be that the amiable lady's story was +innocuous in every detail, while it commended itself as being absolutely +true to human nature, that great essential in a narrative of any sort. +There were the feminine instinct as to the matching of colors, inbred +throughout each latitude, and the masculine instinct in relation to +stockings, existent in every longitude, each indicated with all +assuredness and delicacy. The account, it was declared by the Young +Lady, was a veritable "Idyl of an Outing," and no one disagreed with +her. Then came renewed expression of the now constant anxiety and +curiosity regarding the progress of the rescuers and Stafford went +forward to learn the situation, and report. + +"We're in 'in a hole,' literally," came, the reply to Stafford's inquiry +of the engineer in charge of the relief train; "That's all we make, at +first, merely a hole, when we charge into the big drift ahead of us +now. It's thirty feet deep and we can't do much more than loosen up +things, just here, and let the shovelers do the rest. It will be better +when we get through this cut. We've sent men on ahead and they find the +thing not nearly so bad half a mile from here. We're getting along." + +"But, how fast are you getting along?" queried Stafford impatiently. +"When are you going to reach us?" + +"I can't tell. I'm getting a little doubtful about the fourth day, now. +Still, we may make it. How are you fixed for heat and provisions?" + +"All right yet, I guess. I'll find out and let you know later," and +Stafford went back to the sleeper. + +The bearer of unpleasant news is seldom received with an ovation and +Stafford proved no exception. There were the usual plaints, but he did +not notice them. Somehow, he had no interest in deliverance. He was +satisfied to be where he was. He was living entirely in the present and +what was near him. He looked about for the Far Away Lady, but she was +not visible, and he indulged in a fit of moodiness, like a boy. He +lingered with the company until the time for retiring came and then +went forward to the smoking compartment, where the usual group of the +gregarious were enjoying themselves. Here he found relaxation of +thought, at least, and, to a degree, amusement. + +He entered as there was being related an incident of politics. It was +told by a man portly, ruddy-faced and wearing a gold watch chain, +weighty enough for a small cable, from which depended the emblems of two +or three of the great secret fraternities. Though in the drawing-room +gatherings he had appeared somewhat less in his element than here, he +had become rather a favorite because of his unfailing good nature and +evident shrewdness and sense of humor. He was known as a "commissioner" +of something in one of the large cities, a typical city politician. He +was relating the difficulties experienced in what he called + + THE FATTENING OF PAT + +Pat, who was an excellent janitor, in charge of a big bank building, +with men under him, had aspirations. He wanted to become a policeman. +The place he held was a good one and most men of his class would have +been contented, but Pat was not. He was dissatisfied with the monotonous +indoor life and decided that to be on the "foorce" was the only thing +for him. He was a fine fellow, overflowing with energy and full of +persistence, he would not, however advised, abandon the idea. He was a +tall, muscular man and, aside from the qualities already mentioned, was +possessed of good sense and was of excellent habits. He had friends +among the tenants of the big structure over the care of which he +presided and when, realizing that to attain the object of his desire +some strong alliance would be necessary he appealed for aid to an +occupant of one of the offices in the building, a young man, who, if not +in politics as a business, knew something of the game, he met with no +discouragement. + +"I'll do what I can, Pat," said Wheaton. + +The Municipal Civil Service Commission had just been established in the +City and was yet "wobbly" and, to a degree, swayed by political +influences. Under the direction of Wheaton, who decided to see fair +play, Pat underwent the usual preliminary examination, passed admirably +as to all questions and would have passed physically, as well, but for +his weight, or rather the lack of it. The required weight for a +policeman of his height was one hundred and sixty-five pounds; Pat +weighed only one hundred and fifty, for he was as gaunt as an +Australian. Other men lacking as many pounds of the weight nominally +demanded had secured places with no difficulty, but Pat was not desired +by those in authority. His political views were not of the right sort +for the examiners and his manner showed his independence. Fortunately +for him, the first examination was only a preliminary--(A delay allowed +the politicians time to select their men among the many)--and a second +and final one was announced to take place four weeks after the first. +Pat came to his friend almost with tears in his eyes: + +"Oi'm done fur," said he. + +"What's the matter?" demanded Wheaton. + +"Oi'm fifteen pounds short," said Pat. + +"How long before the next examination?" + +"Four wakes." + +"Pshaw," said Wheaton. "We'll fix it, yet. I'm not going to let those +fellows squeeze you out. Will you do just as I tell you?" + +"Oi will, begobs!" was the sturdy answer. + +"Well you must begin to-morrow morning. You've got two sub-janitors, +haven't you?" + +"Oi have," said Pat. + +"You can make them do all the work, if you want to, can't you?" + +"Oi can that!" + +"Then what I want you to do is this--and, mind, I'm going to take charge +of the whole thing and foot the bills; they won't be much--I don't want +you to do a lick of work for the next four weeks. I want you to stay in +your room about all the time: you mustn't even walk about much. I want +you to eat nothing but potatoes and bread with about a quarter of an +inch thick of butter and sugar on it. Eat lots! You can have meat, too, +if it's very fat. And--you're a sober man and I don't believe you'll get +a fixed habit in four weeks--I'm going to send a keg of beer to your +room in the morning, and another whenever one is finished. You're to +drink a big mug of it every hour." + +"Blazes," interjected Pat, "Th' ould lady'll murther me. Oi'll be drunk, +sure, an' me breath will breed a peshtiliench." + +"No it won't. You'll soon get used to it. We begin to-morrow." + +And the next day Pat began, resolutely, though with fears. Wheaton +visited him frequently and encouraged him in every way; "I'll get you +all the newspapers and teach you to play solitaire--it's a fine game +with cards when you're alone. You're a goose," he said "and I'm training +you for _pate de fois gras_," but Pat did not know what that meant. He +only knew that times were queer. He was afraid of the "ould lady." + +The third morning he came down beaming. "It's quare," he announced. "Oi +belave th' ould lady do be fallin' in love wid me over agin, she does be +that foine an' carressin' wid me. 'Pat!' says she, 'you're the new mon +intoirely! You do be as gentle as a lamb an' it's good to see ye so +playful wid the childer' says she. 'Oi'm in love wid ye, Pat' says she. +An' Oi all the toime falin' loike a baste, for I knew well 'twas only +the mellowness av the beer in me. But it's given me a lesson it has. +Oi'll be betther tempered after this." + +"Good idea," said Wheaton. + +At the end of the first week Wheaton took Pat out and weighed him, +undressed--four pounds gained. + +"We must do better than that," commented Wheaton. "We'll barely pull +through at this gait, and it will be harder work getting on flesh the +last two weeks. Do you take your beer every hour?" + +"O'm beginning to spake Dutch," said Pat. + +"Well, keep on with it and eat--eat like a hobo! We'll make it! Don't +exercise, don't even wink, if you can help it." + +Pat took his instructions literally and obeyed them. He stayed in his +room and gorged. His eyes became a trifle heavy and his face flushed, +but at the end of two weeks he weighed only one hundred and fifty-nine +pounds. Somehow, the next week he didn't do so well, gaining only three +pounds more. Dame Nature, in mistaken kindness, was trying to adjust him +to his new diet. Wheaton was becoming excited--only one hundred and +sixty-two pounds, and only a week to gain something over three more in! + +"We must hump ourselves!" + +And Pat did "hump" himself, ate and drank with an assumed voracity, and +had a slight attack of indigestion. This didn't help matters. The night +before the examination he weighed only one hundred and sixty-four pounds +and four ounces--three quarters of a pound short! + +Wheaton was anxious but not despairing. "The examination begins at +ten," he said. "Meet me here at four o'clock in the morning. We'll have +six hours left." + +At the hour named in the morning came Wheaton, carrying a big jug. "Have +you had any beer, yet, Pat?" he asked. + +"No sor." + +"Then don't take any. You must be clear-headed when you go before the +Commission. Here's a gallon of water, good water it is. You must drink +it all before ten o'clock." + +Pat looked dismayed. "Oi'll try sor." + +Then began the struggle. Pat washed down his breakfast at once, very +salt-broiled mackerel--which Wheaton had brought,--with the usual +potatoes and a big beefsteak. After that every five minutes, Wheaton +forced the poor fellow to drink a glass of water. At half-past nine the +gallon was done. Pat, like the tea-drinkers of Ebenezer Chapel, "swelled +wisibly." But Wheaton made him drink more water. + +"Oi feel loike a fishpond, sor," he complained. + +They hurried to the nearest Turkish bath and Pat stripped and got upon +the scales. He weighed one hundred and sixty-five pounds and three +ounces. Pat was perspiring violently. + +"If you sweat, I'll murder you!" said Wheaton. + +They appeared before the Commission, Wheaton watching everything like a +hawk, his heart in his mouth as the weighing test came. One hundred and +sixty-five pounds and one ounce! There was no getting around it! + +"Pat," said Wheaton, later, "You're on the force now and you've had a +lesson in practical politics. You ought to be a sergeant in no time." + +"Politics is aisy," said Pat, "but Oi'm thinkin' Oi'll be changin' me +diet. Oi'm forninst beer and bread and butther forever--an'" he added, +reflectively, "Oi dunno but wather, too!" + +"He's making a good policeman," concluded the Commissioner. + +So ended the relation of Pat's experience, and, a little later, the +laughing group in the smoking room dissolved itself. Stafford sought his +berth, largely recovered from his discontent and more like his reliant +self. But he was not assured as to his dreams. Would his conscience be +with him still? Could the line of conventional demarcation between him +and the Far Away Lady be rigorously preserved, even in them? + +But no dreams came to him at once. He could not sleep at first but +struggled with himself. He was tumultuous and impatient with his +environment and obligations, all, seemingly, standing in the way of his +happiness. He was lost, utterly, in the old conflict which comes with +the hesitation between the recognized right and wrong, the accepted +thing at the time in the age of the earth in which he lived? To his aid, +he quoted to himself the sayings of the keen thinkers, the abstract +reasoners: he thought of Anatole France: "What is morality? Morality is +the rule of custom and custom is the rule of habit. Morality is, then, +the rule of habit. Morality changes, continually with custom, of which +it is only the general idea." He thought of the others, too, of one who +reasoned from the fact that there were a Jewish morality, a Christian +morality, a Buddhist morality, and all that. In his half sleep he +mumbled; "Why, Reason is the thing," and then he added mumblingly and +reflectively, "but then we have learned that there is a right and reason +must end by being right. There is a right--we know that; we feel it--and +we know what it is. It is, largely, a subordination, a regard for +others. We cannot quite justify ourselves for any selfishness by quoting +some great law of nature. Conscience, somehow, has become the greatest +of these laws." + +And so, vaguely and jumblingly, as his senses oozed into sleep, he +quoted failingly, the cold thinkers. Then the real dreams came to him, +but they were misty and bizarre. He was with the Far Away Lady, but the +surroundings were all strange and she was most elusive. They were in a +great house and he could hear her voice but he could not find her, +though he searched from room to room. Then they were in a forest where +there were many flowers and tall trees and she was a bird somewhere up +in the trees and he could hear her singing, but he could not see her +amid the foliage. And, finally, they were where there was much shrubbery +and where he could see her plainly enough, but she was at a distance and +as he followed she would disappear among the roses down some garden +path. All was most tantalizing and fantastic. And so his night passed. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A TEST OF ATTITUDE + + +What are they going to do, a man and a woman who have met and loved in +the past, and have separated conscientiously, when brought together +again under extraordinary circumstances, after each has felt that loving +and of real living had been denied, and endured it all for years? What +is going to happen when, because of one of the accidents of life and of +one of the great accomplishing conditions, such two as this have been, +once more, thrown, figuratively, into each other's arms? + +This man had saved this woman's life yesterday, stumbling upon her after +all this separation, after he done a man's work in another hemisphere +and had, disappointed with life, supposed the chapter closed. Now he was +to meet her at the breakfast table. What must be the demeanor of these +two toward each other now? Be assured neither of them knew, not even the +woman,--and in foreseeing as to such a situation a woman knows more, by +some instinct, than a man may learn in a thousand years. + +She knew that they would meet that morning. That was the inevitable, +after yesterday. Anything else would have been a foolish affectation. He +knew, as well, that he must go in to that breakfast table and sit +opposite her and that then they must face together a situation +delicately psychological and dangerous and altogether fascinating--from +a philosopher's point of view. It was not perhaps, quite so fascinating +to these two people with what we call conscience and the possession of +what makes the greatness of humanity, whether it appertain to man or +woman. There is no sex to nobility. + +She was sitting there, divinely sweet, as he stalked in. She was sitting +there, divinely sweet, because she was made that way, and never did +Stafford realize it more. The years had taken from her gentle beauty not +the slightest toll. + +She bloomed this fair morning--it was only moderately fair, by the +way--as there entered the man who had saved her life the day before and +with whom in the past hers had been the closest understanding of her +life. To the eye she was merely placid and infinitely enchanting. The +man did not appear to such advantage. He entered blunderingly and +doubtful. + +There were, of course, the usual expression of morning courtesies and +then they settled down to a fencing which was but a lovingness as vast +as unexpressed. They talked of a variety of things but there was no +allusion even so near as Saturn, to what was lying close against the +hearts of both. We are rather fine but we are unexplainable sometimes, +we men and women whom Nature made so curiously. + +As a matter of fact, this one of the most forceful of men and one of the +most sweet and desirable of women said practically nothing throughout +the entire breakfast. They did not even refer to the grim incident of +the dog and the grapple, which had been something worth while. Had the +thing been less they would have talked about it. But, to them, by an +indefinable knowing, this matter was something too great to consider at +the present moment. And, so, unconsciously, understanding each other, +they consigned themselves to ordinary table talk. + +But we cannot always command lack of remembrance and get obedience. +There is something better. Nature has her ways. One of her ways is to +have given us eyes, and how she did place us under her soft thumb when +she did that! + +They said very little, but they looked into each other's eyes. They +couldn't help that very well. Then the laws of life worked themselves +out. It is a way they have. + +What are you going to do with a woman's eyes? Inside the depths of a +woman's eyes, lurking lovingly, sometimes, are all the revelations that +must come when the time comes and reflect themselves into the +looking-glasses God provides to tell us of the thoughts of others. There +are different women and different eyes, of course. We must take our +chances on that. + +And, so as said, they did not even refer to the happenings of the day +before or of any of the context of all that had occurred. They did not +refer to the great hound. They talked of nothing but of things +incidental. She asked him when they would probably be released from +their snow imprisonment and he told her that it would be within two +days. + +And, so they separated and had practically said nothing. + +But eyes, as announced, are the most astonishing things. They had talked +a great deal that morning. As we human beings are made, they are a +little the neatest and finest expression of all there is in life. They +hold and send forth the beaconing flash from every intellectual and +loving light-house in the world. They are, with what they say, the +confessional between any two human beings, man and woman, in the world. +They are the mediums of revelation. No wonder that those who know want +sometimes, foolishly, it may be, to die when to them comes a physical +blindness which may not be remedied. + +And this man and woman looked into each other's eyes, he hardly +comprehending at first but having the great consciousness come to him at +last, she doubtless understanding sooner, and even more acutely. + +Intelligent fluttering of the heart is what might possibly be said of +her. She was alarmed and yet, from another point of view, entirely +without fear. She realized the situation better than did he. Ever since +the world was first firmly encrusted out of the steaming fog woman has +been the braver of the two in our love affairs. + +Exceedingly clever as these two people were, there is no opportunity to +do any exceedingly brilliant work in telling all about them. Brought +down to its last analysis, theirs was but the plain, old-fashioned love +which has stood the test of all the centuries and which, in our modern +English and American times, has the flavor of the hollyhocks which grow +about the front fence and the old-fashioned pinks in the yard and a lot +of other things. We have new ways in other things, but love has not +changed much since the time of Egypt. Doubtless it was about the same +way before. + +"What is the day of the week, please," had been Stafford's last +utterance. She did not even reply. She looked back into his eyes and +that look, if it could have been weighed, could have been considered by +nothing but Troy weight, the jeweller's weight, and then it would have +been too coarse for the occasion and the demand. + +And so they separated and had practically said nothing. + +Not the great Sultan Schariar, when listening to the fair Scheherazade, +as she prolonged her life from day to day and finally saved it by the +fascination of her stories; not the august hearer, as Sinbad the Sailor +described his marvelous adventures; not Margaret of Angouleme, as she +gathered the more lettered ladies and gallants of her court and induced +them to add to the gayety of nations by the relation of brisk and risque +experiences; not Dickens, as he spun the threads himself of his Tales of +a Wayside Inn, had a more keen enjoyment than the Colonel listening to +the words of his drafted and mustered volunteers. He fairly glowed +appreciation and satisfaction. As Stafford entered the Cassowary, he +perceived that the Colonel was still recruiting. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A SAMOAN IDYL + + +Among the passengers from one of the other coaches who had occasionally +visited the Cassowary and listened as the novel symposium progressed was +a brown-bearded, middle-aged gentleman with a tanned face and merry eye. +That he was of the navy the Colonel had soon learned, and to the naval +officer he now addressed himself: + +"Lieutenant, you, necessarily, have visited many parts of the world and +must have become acquainted with the facts of many a pretty romance or +rough adventure. I believe you mentioned the circumstance that you were +stationed for a time in the Samoan islands. Can you tell us a tale of +Samoa?" + +The Lieutenant smiled: "I'll tell you a tale of Samoa, a little one," he +said. "I was a witness to its main incident, and it interested me. It +was this way: + + A SAMOAN IDYL + +Una Loa was a Samoan girl, and she was fair to look upon. They have +festivities in their season in Samoa as we have here, and, as here, +there are rivalries among the young women. There are tests of beauty, +too, and she who can show the most beautiful headdress of flowers is +counted the most charming among the maidens. She is as the Jersey heifer +which takes the first prize at the annual fair in some prosperous +county; she is as the lithe and graceful and beautiful creature who +doesn't fall over her train at the receptions at the Court of England; +she is an adornment to the society in which she moves, and, in Samoa, it +must of course be the best society, must consist of those who enter into +the contest exhibiting the sublimity of all head-gear--for head-gear is +a woman's glory. + +There was stationed upon one of the islands of the Samoan Group--there +is no use of mentioning the island in particular--a young gentleman who +had been sent out under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture of +the United States, and, to speak more definitely, from that branch of +the Department which is known as the Weather Bureau. His business was to +sit at the top of a somewhat illy-constructed tower and note the +variations of wind and temperature and all that sort of thing, and then +send his report to the Department at Washington, when he could catch a +steamer, which didn't always often happen, for this was some time ago. +Still he sat up in the tower and took notes and glowered, and made the +best of things, and the work in this region of mild latitude and much +lassitude did not wear upon him to such an extent that he could not fall +in love, not in the purely abstract way that he loved some things +either, as for instance, the equation of the parabola, but vigorously +and deeply. + +He fell in love to such an extent that he became personally interested +in the contest among the fair Samoans as to whom among the belles should +show the most ardent and effective floral decoration of her mass of hair +on the day appointed. + +Now, be it known that the Atlantic Ocean is the Atlantic Ocean, that the +Washington Monument is the Washington Monument. They exist as they are. +Be it known also, that the hair of a Samoan beauty, a great burnished +mass, also exists as it is and is rarely washed between the rising of +the sun and the dropping into the ocean of the same luminary, or at any +other time. + +The name of the young man connected with the Weather Bureau was John +Thompson. That is not a very poetic name, but John Thompson can love +just as hard as Everard Argyle. This John Thompson did anyhow, and he +vowed that his sweetheart should win in the contest of flowery +decorations of the heads of the maidens. This resolve came upon him some +six weeks before the time of trial. He visited Una Loa. + +"How long is it, sweetheart, since you let your hair down?" said he. + +"I do not remember," said she. + +"That is all right," said he. + +Now, John Thompson had entertained certain ideas regarding +agricultural speculation in the Samoan Islands, and had imported for +experimental purposes various small quantities of assorted delicate +fertilizers--powdered bone and ammonia, or something of that sort. Here +was material, and inspiration for action comes to a man sometimes in a +way which makes it seem to him as if all the ancient gods were behind +him and beside him, aiding him in every way. This sublimity of +inspiration came to John Thompson at this moment. + +This is how the man, thus sublimated, reasoned: "All the other girls +must, necessarily, as in the past, wear cut flowers, which must, to an +extent, wither before the judgment of the Wise Ones is declared. I will +make a real, living garden of my darling's head, a garden in which shall +bloom, not only flowers of the islands here, but of Europe and America, +and all countries of the world. Above one of her dark eyes shall dangle +such a bunch of glowing and living pansies as the Islanders have never +seen; the phlox shall lift itself aloft from her coronet; sweet peas and +old-fashioned pinks shall adorn one side of her shapely head, while the +other side will be blazing with tossing poppies. She shall appear among +the contestants with such a crest as never a queen has worn, though the +jewelers of all ages have struggled to make a surpassing crown." + +And the man did his work. "Eh," he said, as he patted the matted mass of +dusky hair, "talk about farms in the States! Here is an area of the +right kind for the support of a family! Talk about landscape gardening! +I'll show them what real landscape gardening is!" + +He did. + +He planted right and left with ardor and good judgment, for he was +not only an enthusiast but had the artist's gift. Una Loa yielded +because she had the trust which every girl should have in a real lover +of good character. As Thompson sowed and sowed, she submitted with all +hopefulness and slept each night with her neck upon a little log, that +each flower plant might grow without abrasion or disturbance. She saw +but little of her kin, save a sister who stayed beside her, for Thompson +was arrogant--said he was making a botanical experiment--and allowed +none to visit her. + +[Illustration: "THE AWARD COULD BUT GO TO UNA LOA"] + +The day of the contest came, as the world went round and round. At the +appointed hour, all the Samoan maidens appeared together, each with her +head in the halo and glory of fair flowers. But there was no contest. +Una Loa stood among them all like a bright spirit from somewhere. The +fragrance from the flowers upon her head sapped itself into the senses +of all who were near her, and there was a glittering, a very splendor of +brilliant, multicolored and flaming humming-birds about her queenly +head. There was no discussion among the judges. The award could but go +to Una Loa, and so it went! + +They say that there is a laziness, which is not, after all, a laziness, +begotten in those who dwell among the islands in the Southern Seas. It +is but adaptation, possibly most sensible. Thompson has resigned from +the Weather Bureau and married Una Loa. He is keeping a cigar-store in +South Apia and is doing tolerably well. + +And the listeners agreed that the Lieutenant had at least looked upon a +romance as genuine as simple. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A WOMAN AND SHEEP + + +None had acquired a more general regard among the passengers than the +Kansas Farmer. He bore no resemblance to the typical farmer as +represented in the comic publications but was, on the contrary, a +well-dressed, imposing looking man of middle age, a college graduate, as +Stafford knew, and one who had selected his occupation because it +appealed to him as, to their own and general good, it might appeal to +hosts of others of the educated men of the country. Stafford and he had +become friends, as was almost a matter of course, and it was the former +who insisted that the Farmer bring to the front some curious experience +of human nature in connection with farm life. "You are the tree we must +tap now," he jested. "It's just because you are what you are that we +want the thing. Inevitably, you, with your experience and associations, +can tell us something of the inner being and its ways on a farm which +will be edifying. Tell us the queerest and most unexplainable thing you +remember in connection with such life and of one man or woman's part in +it." + +The farmer stroked his grizzled, close-cut beard and laughed: + +"It seems to me that the element of love has entered with tolerable +regularity into most of the narratives to which I have had the pleasure +of listening here. That is right, certainly, and natural. What I'm going +to tell is a love story, too, in its way. It is of a love which budded +and bloomed but bore no fruit, for the oddest reason in the world. It is +about a man who loved a woman and was won away by sheep. No, he wasn't +exactly won away; he just forgot. It was the strangest thing I ever knew +or heard of, but it is true. I know the man and his sheep myself, though +I never saw the woman. This is + + JASON'S LOVE STORY + +A swamp oak stump is one of the most contumacious stumps in the world. +It is usually big and its roots extend, like the arms of an octopus, in +all directions save upward. Furthermore, having been bred to the wet, +feeding on dampness when alive, the wood does not rot willingly. The +upper portion of the stump absorbs the showers of heaven and endures +the cracking heat of the sun apathetically and remains pretty much the +same for a long time, while the roots lie solid in their dark bed, +almost regardless of the years as men grow old. So it is that an +otherwise cleared area of land occupied largely by swamp oak stumps is +what the farmers in Michigan's Lower Peninsula call an unpromising place +for present making of crops. It was such an area that Jason Goodell--who +was in love--owned. He possessed eighty acres, an eighth of a section, +with fifteen acres cleared--but for stumps. The young woman whom he +loved was Melissa Trumbull, the eldest daughter of "old man" Trumbull, +who was well-to-do. + +The place where swamp oaks grow is of a sort to command respect. It has +features. It is often a black ash swale. A swale is low ground, but not +a swamp, crossed sometimes, at irregular intervals, by strips of higher +ground referred to generally as beech ridges. In the lower ground thrive +the black ash, the huge swamp oak, various moisture-loving bushes and +luxurious growths of ferns. Up on the ridges grow the maple, the white +ash, the beech, ironwood and birch and bushes which do not object to +less damp soil, nannyberries elders and the like. + +In the swale proper the growth underfoot is bush and there are hundreds +of puddles where the frogs congregate in thousands, mostly the small, +brown wood frog, not the big, green "kerplunk" sort of the ponds and +streams. Here the raccoon finds what is, to him, a land flowing with +milk and honey, for he agrees with a frog diet as a frog diet agrees +with him; here upon dead white trunks the solitary log-cock, the great +black, red-crested woodpecker, largest of his genus, in the region, +hammers away like a blacksmith; here the hermit thrush sings sometimes; +and here little streams are born, to trickle at first, then ripple and +then leap, bubbling and noisy, into the sloping fields outside, to +attain the dignity of brooks at last and join the undercreek. + +On the beech ridges life is different. There the ruffed grouse struts +about and feeds upon the nuts and berries; and there are the squirrels, +black, gray and red. The grouse raise great families on the ridges and +the wooing "drumming" of the males in spring is like nothing else in the +world. It is the most distinctively wildwood sound there is. As for the +squirrels, the black is no longer holding his own with the red and the +gray. He is going like the Red Indian and the buffalo and no one can +tell why. He was not born to civilization. The red and gray adapt +themselves. Of such swale and ridge, so peopled, consisted (as has been +said) the greater portion of the estate of Jason Goodell; excellent land +but requiring much work in its subjugation. + +Never better man for conquering a forest or making good soil yield the +crops it has owed than this same brown-bearded Jason Goodell. Personally +strong, six full feet in height, though a trifle stooping, and slouchy +in his gait, thewed like a draft-horse, broad of forehead and strong of +chin, with firm mouth and steady gray eyes, this man was one to +accomplish things as thoroughly and doggedly as Victor Hugo's Gilliatt +toiling sturdily at the wrecked ship. Like Gilliatt, too, Jason was +toiling for love's sake. He had never spoken of his passion to Melissa +Trumbull, but they had studied together in the little district school, +had grown up together, had confided their plans and hopes to each other +and, until Jason left the employ of old man Trumbull and began work on +his own "eighty," had been almost constantly together. To Jason, +reticent, and timid as well, in a matter of this sort, it never occurred +to make a definite engagement, and to Melissa, black-eyed, gingham-clad, +buoyant and with plenty of work to do, the situation doubtless presented +itself with the same aspect. No pledged word, though, could have made +the matter more fixed and serious than it was, at least to Jason. What +need of words? The first thing to do was to make a home for the +occupancy of two young married people. + +So Jason built a rude cabin and lived in it alone and began clearing his +land. At the end of the second year he had fifteen acres in crops of +grass and grain, and the beginning of a herd of cattle and a drove of +hogs, and was counted by his neighbors as a young man who would be well +off some day. They were right in their conclusion. Jason was the one to +succeed as a farmer. Living simply, working untiringly, the +accomplishments of the isolated man were a surprise even to the rugged +farmers who knew him well. At the end of the third year a new field had +been hewed into the forest and the land first cleared had become more +easily tillable. Fire had fed on the stumps. Half a dozen cows were +feeding on the grassland, the hogs were fattening on last year's corn +crop and chickens and turkeys cackled and called about the rough +log-barn. Butter and pork and eggs had a value at the nearest little +town, and Jason had saved money. He bought another eighty acres of +woodland--land was cheap then--and began to plan the building of a +house. There was Melissa! + +No log house should this mansion be but one fit for a bride's reception. +It should be a framed house, with all proper rooms, clap-boarded as to +the sides and shingled as to the roof. There should be a porch in front +and the building should be of two stories. Jason brooded fondly over it +all and planned and dreamed. He consulted often with Jim Rubens, the +farmer carpenter of the locality: "Never saw a man so wrapped up in his +house-buildin' in all my life!" said Rubens. + +The beams and plates and joists and rafters for the house were planned +and, with axe and broad-axe and saw, Jason and Rubens labored in the +forest until oak and pine were cut and hewed, true to the line, and were +then dragged by toiling oxen to the site of the house of which they were +to be the stay and strength. The farmers round about assembled for the +raising, there were heavings and shoutings, the parts were reared under +the hoarse overseeing of Carpenter Rubens and the great timbers, tongue +in socket, pinned lastingly together, stood aloft, the sturdy white +outline of a pleasant home to face the roadway. What days they were for +Jason as the two men labored afterward for weeks until the house stood +all complete from cellar to roof-peak, and even painted--white, with +green blinds, of course. Furnished it was too, well furnished for the +country. It was the finest house in the neighborhood and Jason walked +through the rooms with that feeling which comes to a man of purpose when +he looks upon the thing accomplished. Not yet, though, was the place +ready for Melissa. There was much to be done besides the mere building +of a shelter, but, even now, the front part of it must be sacred for +her. There Jason nailed up the door solidly. + +What comfort could a farmer's wife have with merely a house to live in! +Here must be all convenience for her outdoor work in connection with the +household and all should be pleasant to look upon. Jason settled down +resolutely to what was yet to come. + +Obviously the old log barn had outlasted its original purposes. Its +small stable no longer afforded shelter enough for the increasing herd +of cattle and the horses nor its mows room for the hay and grain. There +must be a frame barn, a big one, with high, wide doors into which a team +with a load might be driven and with long stables and mows and roof room +enough for all contingencies of harvest. The year after the completion +of the house, the barn was built and the one of logs abandoned. But the +barn had not absorbed Jason's thoughts so fully as had the house. + +The lonely toiling of the man was not lonely to him. He was strong and +rejoiced in work, and there was ever Melissa and always something to be +done for her. From the front door of the house down to the roadway he +made a wide gravelled path and along its sides he made beds of +old-fashioned pinks and sowed and planted larkspur and phlox and dahlias +and peonies and golden coreopsis and bachelor's buttons and other +flowers named in the circulars of a seed firm in the distant city. He +made a neat picket gate in the fence where the walk opened on the +roadway and beside the fence he had hollyhocks, and sunflowers, the +latter trying every day to see Melissa, and turning their heads +resolutely from sunrise until evening and going to sleep every night +with their faces toward her home, which was in the West. Close beside +the house he planted rosebushes and "old hen and chickens" and +lady-slippers and morning-glories, and a madeira vine for the porch. +There was a path from the front around the house to the kitchen--which +had a porch as well--and beside this path Jason had planted an abundance +of sweet briar, thinking as he did so how its faint, sweet fragrance and +fair blossoms would match Melissa. A hop-vine clambered up the kitchen +porch. Jason was thirty years old, now, and Melissa twenty-five. + +One day old man Trumbull, who was a great trader, suddenly disposed of +his farm and moved into the adjacent county. Somehow, the news did not +have much effect on Jason Goodell. It would be as easy to bring her from +thirty miles away as from where she had lived, he reasoned. The only +difference to come would be that he would not see her often in the +interval. There had never been any correspondence between them and it +did not occur to Jason to write now. + +There came a hard winter, the horses and cattle and other stock required +close attendance, and Jason was much about the house. It was at this +time when he discovered the faults of the kitchen floor, which was of +pine. The boards had shrunk and there were cracks and the soft wood had +worn away under the tread of his heavy feet. That sort of kitchen floor +would never do for Melissa! He made a new floor and was happy at his +labor all through "the big snow." The floor was of hard, seasoned ash, +matched perfectly and smooth as the floor of a ball-room. "It will be +easier to mop" said he, and thought of Melissa's sunbonnet, and of how +it would look hanging against the whitewashed wall. + +All winter in Jason's newer eighty acres the axes of two men had swung +hardily and, with spring and early summer, came to Jason a stress of +effort in helping at the clearing and in attendance on the crops. He had +little time for work about the garden, though it was not neglected, but +he felt that he must somewhat change his home life. He had lived in the +kitchen and a little room adjoining it. He had, from the time the house +was built, never changed in the feeling that the front part of the house +was sacred to Melissa, but he felt that now a little change must come. +His duties were increasing. He must have a hired man about him, one who +would live with him. So the hired man came and slept in the room Jason +had occupied while Jason slept upstairs in what, in fancy, he had +called "our room." "She won't mind," he thought. + +There is spur to effort for the real farmer and a great comforting pride +in looking out upon a conquered province, to note the corn swaying +full-eared, the timothy and clover and grain fields changing color with +the shift of the clouds and sweep of the breeze, the lowing cattle in +the pastures and the general promise of Autumn's wealth. Jason enjoyed +it all, for was it not the product of his design and energy, and as the +farm grew, he grew with it. Success fairly earned made him zealous for +more. He broadened and was for trying things. + +One day old Rubens came along, and leaning idly over the front fence, +began a farmer's chat with Jason, who was digging among the flowers. +Rubens looked away at the vacant log barn. + +"What are you going to do with the old barn?" he asked, "tool-house?" + +"No," said Jason, "I have a tool-room in the big barn. I don't know what +I'll do with the old one. Pull it down, maybe." + +Rubens gazed meditatively at the abandoned but still sound structure: +"It would make a mighty good sheep barn," he suggested. + +No more was said at the time, but Ruben's idea was not forgotten. It +remained in Jason's mind and the more he thought upon it the more he +became impressed. Jason had never raised sheep, successful as he had +been with other animals. He considered, and rightly, that most of his +land was too low for them. There was an eighty acres of woodland +adjoining that which he had latest bought that was hilly, not heavily +timbered and with many springs and brooks. Partly cleared, with what +woods were left well under-brushed, it would make a perfect sheep +pasture. He had half a mind to buy it and experiment. And the plan grew +in his mind until it overmastered him and he bought the land. + +Not the sort of man to venture upon a new venture carelessly was Jason, +and he had a problem before him now: What sort of sheep should he raise? +His cattle and hogs were of good breeds and to have seen to it that it +was so he had found profitable. With sheep he was less acquainted. He +asked advice. "Get Merinos, by all means," pronounced Henry Wilson, who +lived to the north of him. "Get Southdowns and nothing else," said James +Remington, who lived to the west. "I'll get twenty of each and +experiment with them separately," decided Jason. + +Now as between the Merino and the Southdown sheep there is a great gulf +fixed. The Merino is small with gnarled horns, wrinkled neck and nose; +with silk-like wool curling close to the skin in its fineness, yellow +underneath because of its oiliness, and dark outside because of the dust +gathered and held by such close, sticky coat. Well tried is the +endurance of the sheep-washer who, in late spring before shearing time, +stands waist deep in some stream and seeks to cleanse the fleece of a +flock of shivering Merinos driven bleating to the water, and dreading it +like a tramp. But the fine Merino wool commands a price; the fleece is +heavy and the breeder profits from that, not from the mutton. The flesh +of the Merino requires for its consumption people who have been long +besieged and who are hungry. + +Different is the quality of the Southdown; not from Spanish ancestors, +feeding on Andalusian hills, as came the Merino, did he come, but from +Anglo-Saxon forefathers who cropped the herbage of the Hampshire and +Sussex downs. Big and white of body and dark-faced, sturdy of build and +garbed in clean, not over fine white wool, hornless but stepping free +and high, the Southdown has a healthy individuality. As concerns his +mutton, those who know how to eat, and what to eat, speak fluently while +their eyes glisten. + +And almost as the flocks throve under Isaac, toiling for Rebecca, throve +the flocks of Jason, toiling for Melissa. In summer and autumn they fed +in the new pasture land and in winter they were sheltered and fared well +in the old barn, now renovated and with a great shed attached for +further room. Jason became absorbed in sheep-growing, as he had never +been before in the growing of anything. He read books on the subject and +tried experiments. At the end of the third year, with good flocks now +his he selected from each the finest ram and ewe and entered them at the +County fair. He wanted to learn with which breed he had been most +successful. + +Canny and just are almost always the judges at an American County fair. +Known personally throughout the region, selected for their uprightness +and knowledge of special beast or fowl or any product of the fields, +their verdict is almost mechanically accepted as a final and just one. +More and more interested became Jason regarding the issue of his +experiments in thus entering into competition with breeders, some of +whom had raised sheep before he was born, and he puzzled himself much +over the problem of where, in the opinion of these unbiased experts, he +would prove to have done best. The decision, when it came, was hardly a +surprise to him. His Merinos, it is true, received favorable mention, +but his Southdowns took first prize in a field where there was decided +and worthy competition. A proud man was Jason Goodell when he saw the +blue ribbons tied by a gray-bearded giant in jeans about the necks of +his two entries. He made an instant resolution. "I'll not raise wool," +he said, "I'll leave that to the Ohioans of the Western Reserve. I'll +raise mutton!" + +He sold the prize-winners for a mighty price and returned to his farm. +Within a week the flock of Merinos was sold, as well, and the money so +received was invested in an importation of more Southdowns, with blood +as blue as that of the Hapsburgs, and far stronger. Then began +sheep-raising that was sheep-raising. + +It is hard to serve two masters and it must be admitted that, since his +thoughts and plans had turned so absorbingly to Southdowns, Jason felt +less surpassingly the inspiration of Melissa. There had been a time when +he dreamed of her almost nightly, but, now, his sleeping visions were of +great flocks upon the hillsides and the eyes into which he looked were +not always the sparkling ones of Melissa, but it might be the soft, +gentle eyes of quite another color of some great ewe. Dreams are +grotesque things. + +Still, instinctively, sometimes fervently, Jason worked and devised for +the girl who had gone away. The big orchard back of the house and barns, +now growing into fruitfulness, he cared for well. In the spring, feeding +the just-weaned calves, as he put his fingers in the mouth of some +vigorous youngster and then thrust its muzzle into the milk, that it +might learn to drink, he thought as the calf butted joyously at the pail +as if it were his own mother, how Melissa would like the calves and how +much better than he she would attend to them! He was somewhat troubled, +too, because the spring in the hollow was not nearer the house--he did +not want Melissa to carry water so many yards--but he planned a +"spring-house" with a cement floor, where Melissa should keep the milk +and make the butter. That would be less labor for her. There would not +be much butter-making anyhow He was not going to have butter and eggs +to sell. Only enough cattle and horses and hogs and chickens for farm +purposes did he intend to keep. And he bought yet another eighty acres +of land. + +It is wonderful how some over-mastering aim, one the accomplishment of +which requires concentration of thought and exertion of all energy in +one direction, will get its grip upon a man and hold it to the end. With +high and low it is the same. Mozart died with the score of the Requiem +Mass hardly dry from his feeble hand. Napoleon died with the word of +command upon his lips. Seekers, investigators, experimenters in all +fields, great and small, have grown into a forgetfulness of aught save +one object, have abandoned all outside, and have dreamed and devised and +labored toward one absorbing end. Such compelling influence in life may +come to the farmer as to others. With Jason, who recognized a farmer's +dignity, who knew that the farmer often fought men's battles and at all +times fed them, the attainment of his own ambition was nothing small. He +became almost a monomaniac over Southdowns. How they thrived!--for +Nature ever loves a mentor. Peas grew where oats had grown, clover where +was before a cornfield, turnips where had been potatoes, for sheep +must eat in winter. It became a Southdown farm, and acres were yet +added, for the undertaking was most profitable--until the time came when +Jason's keen eyes could not, as he stood looking from the barn door, +reach more than vaguely the outlines of his own domain. One day, a girl +wearing a sunbonnet matching exactly in shape and color the one Melissa +had once worn, passed by and Jason's thoughts went back. That afternoon +he took horses and wagon and drove to the growing town. He returned with +a piano. "Melissa may have learned to play," he said to himself, "and +she will be glad to find it here." But, for weeks, perhaps for months +afterward, no Melissa came again into his waking dreams nor in his +sleep. + +[Illustration: "THE CHILDREN CARRIED AWAY ARMFULS OF BLOSSOMS"] + +He had abundance of help about him now. Another hired man, accompanied +by his wife, had been brought into the house, the wife proving a notable +housekeeper and relieving Jason of all petty duties. He visited his +neighbors and was liked among them. The children especially were fond of +him and he allowed them to visit his house at will and to carry away +armfuls of blossoms from his great flower-garden, seeing to it only that +they did not harm the plants. But the parlor, with its furniture still +unworn, though becoming somewhat old-fashioned now, and with its piano +still untouched, was never entered except for dusting, and the front +door was never opened. + +Far and wide as the great breeder of Southdown sheep, became known the +name of Jason Goodell, and his flocks and barns grew with acres +steadily. One afternoon a traveling nurseryman came to see him upon +business and stayed to dinner. They chatted over the meal: + +"I was over at Wishtigo last week," said the man; "drove over one day +and came back the next. Who d'ye think I met?" + +"Couldn't guess." + +"I met County Clerk Jim Lacey's wife--her that used to be Melissa +Trumbull, you know. It was the first I knew of it. I took dinner with +'em; she wouldn't allow anything else. They've been married seven years +and they've got a mighty nice little family: three children. Jim's a +good fellow." + +Jason said nothing for a few moments. Then he assented deliberately: +"Yes, Jim's a good fellow. I've met him often. I didn't know whether he +was married or not, though. What was it you said about them young pear +trees? I may take a dozen or two of 'em." + +In the middle of the forenoon a few days later, while Jason was looking +over the sheep barns and giving directions to the men at work there, a +sudden fancy came upon him. He went to the house, asked for a hammer and +withdrew the nails from the front door. Then he opened all the parlor +windows and let in the sunlight. "It'll be healthier," he explained to +the astonished and delighted housekeeper. "Keep them open as much as you +want to now, in pleasant weather, and let the children in, too, if they +like it. It'll brighten things up." + +At a table in one of the fine restaurants in the big city sat, recently, +at dinner a man and woman, he a man of the world, she charming as women +so often are. They were delighted with the wonderful mutton they had +just eaten and were talking of it. + +"It's a mutton only kings would be allowed to eat, if these were ancient +times," the man asserted laughingly. "It's delicate as strawberries, +though that isn't a good comparison. It may have come direct from the +Goodell fields." + +"Who is Goodell?" queried the lady. + +"Goodell, my dear madam, is a public benefactor. He is one of the +wisest raisers of Southdown sheep the country knows. He's a splendid old +fellow, too. I've visited his farm and met him. He's awfully fond of +children." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE ENCHANTED COW + + +For some reason, not altogether clear, there was no comment for a time +after the Farmer had finished his account of the affair of Jason and the +girl and the Southdown sheep. Perhaps it was because of the +grotesqueness of the idea that a man working so faithfully for and so +dreaming of his love--a practical man--could have left absolute +possession of her to the unreal, while making his hobby at hand the +real. The silence was broken by the Young Lady: + +"That is very strange life history, it seems to me. How could any man, a +real man, forget the girl he cared for in such a way? It seems all +wicked and unnatural." + +"But, my dear young lady," explained the Professor, banteringly +ponderous, "he did not forget her. In fact, from the account he appears +to have been a most devoted lover. What he forgot was time. Besides," he +continued, "taking the broader point of view, how much better it is for +all of us that, in one region at least, we have better mutton than that +Jason should have raised a family!" + +"Bother the mutton!" was the indignant and somewhat irreverent answer, +and then the Colonel intervened: + +"My dear Miss," he explained ingratiatingly, "I am confident that it is +neither the Professor's lack of heart nor sympathy nor gallantry that +has spoken, but, instead, his superior and appreciative judgment in the +matter of mutton. It may be that he is braver than some of us. However, +it doesn't matter, because your sensibilities are going to be soothed +and fed on caramels just now. I am most confident of that, since I am +about to commandeer the Poet. Mr. Poet, there is no alternative." + +There is something anomalous about the successful modern poets. They are +usually disguised as citizens. They do not have shaven faces and long +hair and another world expression upon their countenances. Sometimes +they have even a stubby mustache and a bad look. This particular poet +chanced to be good-looking, but that proves nothing. He responded easily +enough: + +"Vocalism is difficult to me. I'd rather write this out. I can tell you +a story, though, of the region where, it is said, were sowed the +Dragon's Teeth from which sprang the men who later owned the Eastern +Hemisphere. The story of the Enchanted Cow has the merit that it is +true." + + THE ENCHANTED COW + +It is odd how often when from some legendary source a fairy story comes, +we find fact mixed with the fancy. This tale, for instance, might just +as well be called "Single Hoof and Double Hoof" or the "Wild Ride for +Caviare," as to be named "The Enchanted Cow." Certainly every one should +know about caviare, and why some beasts have split hoofs and some round, +unyielding ones, but that enchantment should have anything to do with it +is curious. + +Into the Danube far southwest of Buda-Pesth once ran a deep, still +stream which babbled when it began in the hills, became more quiet as it +reached the plain, and was almost sluggish when it entered the Black +Tarn, as the broad sheet of water was called, though it was in fact a +lake surrounded by sedgy marshes. The stream after feeding and passing +through the Black Tarn became a deep river, and broadened as it poured +itself into the Danube, the father of waters of all the region. To the +north of the Black Tarn was the Moated Grange where lived the Lady +Floretta Beamish, that is the lady whose name would have been that if +translated into English, for the country in which she lived was Hungary. +The streams which would, in English, have been called Ken Water after +flowing through the Black Tarn as told, went on through the estate of +Sir Gladys Rhinestone. It is true that Gladys is usually accepted as the +name of a gentlewoman, but this time it belonged to a gentleman, and one +of high degree. He explained his name himself by frankly confessing that +he had been named after his mother. + +In the days referred to people of the class of the Lady Floretta Beamish +and Sir Gladys Rhinestone were generally under the immediate sovereignty +of a prince, and the prince in their case was scarce a model. The one to +whom all of that part of Hungary owed allegiance was Prince Rugbauer, +and he was hardly of a type to be called gentle or considerate. In fact +none of the people of the lands about were accustomed to pronounce the +name of Prince Rugbauer above a whisper. Whenever it became necessary to +allude to the prince, the inhabitants of the country were used to make +the motion, hand on throat, of strangling. This was a direct allusion +to the prince's system of taxation, and was understood by the humblest +knave in the whole valley of Ken Water. Even the prince knew the meaning +of this gesture, though when first told of it he but laughed grimly and +no one ever spoke to him again about it. It was the witch of Zombor who +told the prince. Anything malicious might be expected from her. + +It was because of the witch that the cow was in trouble. The witch had +enchanted the cow for a thousand years, and the seven hundredth year was +passing when this tale begins. It may be said straightforwardly of the +witch, that she was one of the worst of a disagreeable class of beings +now, happily, becoming rare. She lived in a sort of hutch, a round +mud-walled den on a hill which would be called Endbury Moon in English, +and throughout the day she lay curled up in this den like a snail in its +shell, but at night she came out regularly to work such mischief as she +might in the country round about. Wherever she found there was no +trouble she proceeded at once to brew some. There was no end to her +pernicious activity. + +The Lady Floretta Beamish was an orphan and sole mistress of the +two-towered Grange and all the lands and waters a mile either up and +down the deep Ken Water. But the land was far from rich, and the +revenues of the lady came mostly from the sturgeon in the river which +were caught each year in the same manner as in the Danube itself. The +Lady Floretta was a very beautiful creature. Her hair was of a pale +golden hue, and her eyes were blue. Her cheeks were like June roses. She +was tall and fair, and walked around the walled Grange in a long white +satin robe embroidered with gold, and down her back rippled the golden +hair, even to the hem of her trailing gown. + +It required the services of seven maidens and seven hours daily to comb +and brush the Lady Floretta's hair, but they did not mind it. The seven +maids had nothing else to do, so they combed and they combed, and they +brushed and they smoothed the pale golden treasure of their mistress' +hair, fastening each shining braid of it at last to the hem of her +trailing gown, with pins sparkling with diamonds, moonstones, rubies and +emeralds. Why the Lady Floretta did not dispose of some of these jewels +when the strait came, which will be told of, it is not easy to +understand. It may be they were all heirlooms and so not to be parted +with. + +A year of trial came at last for both the Lady Floretta and Sir Gladys +Rhinestone. No fish were caught and that was a disaster which affected +everything. The fish were the fortune of the country, for from the eggs +of the great sturgeon was made the caviare, without which no true-born +noble of the realm could make a tolerable meal. The caviare was shipped +away to all parts of the civilized world as it is now, and it will be +seen that to have the stream fail of fish was a calamity of first +magnitude. + +It was a wonderful thing to see the manner of fishing in those days, and +they fish in the same way upon the Danube now. They cut a great gap +through the ice in the winter, the gap extending across the stream, and +in it they set monster nets. Then, miles above the nets, a band of +horsemen ranged themselves straight across the river on the ice, which +would bear an army, and at a signal blast come thundering down at utmost +speed. The noise was terrific. "Ohe! ohe! a hun! a hun!" yelled the wild +horsemen, there was a blare of trumpets and the strong ice trembled +beneath the impact of the mighty hoofs. The timid sturgeon fled beneath +the ice before the pursuing shock, and at last rushed blindly into the +awaiting nets, to be taken by thousands and tens of thousands. But from +Ken Water, though the horsemen rode as in the past, no fish were found. +The stewards explained that the stream had run very low, and that the +fish had gone either to the Danube or the depths of the Black Tarn. The +case was very bad. Prince Rugbauer announced that Sir Gladys and Lady +Floretta were false traitors both, and announced as well that he would +cancel their ownership of their lands and castles, and hold them no +better than common folk themselves unless the heavy annual taxes were +paid within a week. + +And so it came to pass one night that from his castle Sir Gladys paced +with bowed head along Ken Water, around the Black Tarn toward the +witch's hut on Endbury Moor, and at the same time, the moon over her +right shoulder, came to the desolate hill-top Lady Floretta, each bent +on consulting the Witch as to what should be done about the fish that +had left Ken Water. + +The Witch, seated on top of her hut, gave what is called in old stories, +an eldritch laugh when she saw Sir Gladys advancing on one side of the +Moor, and Lady Floretta, more slowly climbing up the other. + +When the Lady Floretta heard the strange laugh of the Witch, she was +startled and alarmed and stood still for the space of a full half-hour, +while her seven maidens coaxed her to go on, and so Sir Gladys, who was +less affected by the eldritch laugh than she and who, moreover, was +alone, arrived first at the Witch's haunt and secured audience at once. +He gave the Witch a gold-plated candlestick and two sugar spoons of +silver, then explained his woeful plight, and asked advice and counsel. + +The Witch clutched the articles eagerly in her claw-hands, climbed down +from the little hut, and standing in her low door croaked out: + + "By the light of yonder moon, + Look and see your fortune soon!" + +She thrust the candlestick and sugar spoons into a bag at her girdle, +and, curling up within her hut, fell fast asleep without ceremony, +leaving Sir Gladys peering doubtfully in at the door which she had left +open. What she had said was certainly vague and unsatisfactory and he +felt that he had been imposed upon. He tried in vain to arouse the +creature and tiring at last of shouting into the hut at a figure +apparently of stone, he turned away but to meet, fair and full, the +beautiful Lady Floretta Beamish attended by the seven maidens carrying +seven lighted horn lanterns, and followed by a gentle snow-white cow +with golden horns and hoofs. + +Sir Gladys swept the heather with his plumed hat, as he bowed before the +Lady Floretta. + +"Madam," he said, with deep respect, "upon what quest do you come upon +this lonely moor by the uncertain light of the moon feebly aided by the +seven lanterns carried by your maidens?" + +The Lady Floretta could not speak. Her embarrassment and confusion were +such that she could scarcely stand even when supported by her maidens. +She looked around for a chair. + +Sir Gladys took from his shoulders his cloak of purple velvet, and +spread it at the lady's feet. "Rest," he said, "rest, and recover your +strength, fair and honored Lady! I will await your pleasure, meanwhile +examining the unusual specimen of the animal kingdom which I see +following your gracious footsteps." + +He took a step or two toward the Enchanted Cow--for it was she--but she +shook her golden horns, and he remained standing near the Lady Floretta, +who sat down, affably and quite comfortably, upon the cloak of purple. + +"Hark to the thunder!" said the Lady Floretta. "It is going to rain!" +and she began to chide the maids for not bringing umbrellas. Each it is +true had a small parasol to ward off moon-stroke, but there was not one +umbrella worthy of the name among them all. + +"It is not thunder that you hear, sweet lady," said Sir Gladys. "'Tis +but the stertorous and unseemly breathing of the foul Witch in the den." + +"Oh, is she asleep? And no one dares awaken her!" sighed the Lady +Floretta. "I have walked a weary distance to consult her," she +explained, as she became convinced that the sounds she had heard indeed +came from the Witch's hut. + +Sir Gladys came nearer, the seven maidens drew nearer, the Enchanted Cow +herself walked closer to Lady Floretta, as she sat upon the cloak spread +upon the heather, and there in the summer night the Lady Floretta and +Sir Gladys exchanged confidences and condolences about their sore +strait, and often made the dread gesture as they talked, for neither +thought best to name the Prince Rugbauer and both were too well-bred to +whisper in company. + +The seven maidens sitting there on the heather, fell asleep, each +nodding over her horn lantern. The Enchanted Cow, however was wide +awake, and, from her expression, appeared to sympathize deeply with the +two distressed mortals whose troubles were so freely poured forth in her +presence. They spoke of the disastrous happening of the winter, and of +the probable hopelessness of an attempt to retrieve their fortunes at +this time of the year. + +"The outlook is black indeed," remarked Sir Gladys, and the Lady +Floretta agreed with him dejectedly. + +"It is the Split Hoof that you need," said a soft deep voice; and the +two turning their heads saw the Enchanted Cow looking upon them +earnestly. It was she who had spoken. + +Sir Gladys and Lady Floretta were dumb with astonishment. After a brief +silence, the Enchanted Cow continued: "Last winter when you rode +furiously upon the frozen stream the thunder of your horses' hoofs +scared no fish into your nets, and when spring came the water was as low +as it had been the summer before and is still shallow. But I know where +the fish are hidden and that they have not spawned. I stand, during the +heat of these summer days, knee deep in the water in the shallows of the +Black Tarn, and I see what I see." + +"Dear Enchanted Cow," said the Lady Floretta, "please tell us what you +see!" + +"This one night in the year," resumed the Enchanted Cow, without +appearing to notice what the Lady Floretta has said, "this one night in +the year, and the only one night in the year, yonder crafty Witch must +sleep. She cannot awaken until midnight and this is the one night in the +year that the Witch's spell is lifted from me, and I am given the power +of speech until the clock strikes twelve." + +"Oh! however can you stand it to be dumb so much of the time?" exclaimed +the pitying Lady Floretta. + +The Enchanted Cow looked at the Lady in surprise, for it is a great and +beneficent thing to a cow to be allowed to speak at all. + +"It is getting late," said Sir Gladys, looking at his watch by the light +of one of the lanterns, and then, addressing the White Cow: "You were +making an interesting observation concerning fish in the Black Tarn, if +I mistake not." + +"The Black Tarn is full of the great fish," the Enchanted Cow declared. +"They have taken refuge there, Ken Water being so low. You have but to +stretch your nets, draw them, and reap your harvest." + +"But, my dear madam," urged Sir Gladys, "the Black Tarn is surrounded by +fens and marshes. Our horses were mired in trying to take out boats and +nets this spring, when the ice first broke and we thought to fish in the +Black Tarn, at a venture." + +"As I remarked at the beginning of this conversation," said the White +Cow, somewhat testily, "it is the split hoof that you need--" + +Just then the distant Church clocks of the Saag could be heard, all +striking the hour of twelve. + +The White Cow turned at once and walked in the direction of the Black +Tarn, and Sir Gladys, the Lady Floretta and the seven maidens, now fully +awake, followed, the more speedily because of a screech from the Witch, +as she burst from the door, her inevitable yearly nap at an end. + +But no word could be heard from the Enchanted Cow. She looked meaningly +at Sir Gladys, though, and that gallant gentleman seemed plunged in +thought as the little party of wanderers left the white figure standing +on the edge of the swampy ground which surrounded the Black Tarn. Sir +Gladys escorted the Lady Floretta home, and what the two said to each +other as they hurried over the moor toward the Moated Grange is what no +one need consider. They were companions in misfortune, and so drawn +closely. Having bowed to the ground at the Great Gate, and having seen +it close on the disappearing forms of the lady and her seven maidens, +Sir Gladys hied him home, with quickened step. All the while he was +thinking deeply. He had been from boyhood a student of natural history. + +[Illustration: "SIR GLADYS ESCORTED THE LADY FLORETTA HOME"] + +Away back in the past so dim and distant that only the most learned can +talk of it intelligently, away in the time after the earth had risen +from the warm waters and when the great reptiles had given place to +animals, something like those which exist to-day, the hoofs of all the +quadrupeds were split. The land was low and marshy then, and the split +hoof best supported its owner on the yielding surface. As the earth +protruded more and more, and dry and sometimes rocky land uprose, such +beasts as frequented the hills found that their hoofs were changing +slowly with the centuries. Hard and round the hoofs became as was best +for the hill dwellers, but the beasts of the shores and lowlands +retained the split hoof and still can tread the morass. This the +Enchanted Cow knew. This, Sir Gladys Rhinestone, who had studied natural +history, knew as well. + +It was four in the morning by the great clock of the Castle when Sir +Gladys stood in the center of the stone-paved courtyard and wound his +horn. At the sound every man in the Castle and its surrounding +buildings, and on the farms about, became astir, and soon Sir Gladys had +his trusty henchmen a dozen deep about him. His words of command sent +them scattering in all directions, and sunrise beheld a sturdy band, +headed by Sir Gladys, leaving the Castle Gate and turned in the +direction of the Black Tarn. With the men marched fifty of the great red +oxen of Rhinestone, and upon their mighty shoulders they bore the heavy +nets and boats of the once lucky fisherman of Ken Water. + +Sir Gladys had taken the White Cow's hint, and set the split hoof to do +what the whole hoof could not accomplish. + +A messenger was sent to the Moated Grange requesting the Lady Floretta +to visit the shore of the Black Tarn, and thither the procession moved +and soon the Tarn was reached. Then followed a scene of which the story +was told for years, for it was something worth the seeing. The great +tractable oxen, encouraged doubtless by the Enchanted Cow who stood +knee-deep in the oozy margin awaiting them, bore out bravely into the +black waters through reeds and sedge and yielding mud and made a mighty +splashing toward the center of the lake where in a semicircle were +gathered the fishermen with their boats and nets. The waters near the +shore were churned into a foam, and the watchers looking outward could +see the long wakes of the frightened sturgeon as they fled to certain +capture. + +And the nets were filled to the overflowing; so heavy were they that the +great oxen could scarcely draw them to firm land. So the great work was +accomplished, the Lady Floretta and her maidens coming in time to see it +all. There were fish enough to furnish caviare enough it would seem for +half the world. + +It was well that their two estates joined, for while during the fishing, +the Lady Floretta and Sir Gladys had been sitting on the strand of the +Black Tarn--Sir Gladys' cloak around the Lady, for the day grew +chill--they had declared each to the other their determination to join +their lives and their fortunes together from that hour, and so it came +to pass that, by the time the fish eggs were turned into caviare and +sold and the money was in hand to pay Prince Rugbauer's taxes, Sir +Gladys Rhinestone had made the Lady Floretta Beamish his bride, and +what was good or ill fortune for one was the same for the other. + +And this is also told, that, as for the Enchanted Cow, ever afterward +she wandered at will on the moors in summer, and was well cared for at +the castle or the Moated Grange in winter. And ever on the night of the +Witch's sleep, the cow was visited in state by fair Sir Gladys and Lady +Floretta, for nothing is more excellent than gratitude. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LOVE AND A ZULU + + +Mrs. Livingstone, who had become accepted, by this time, to the +Colonel's great delight, as a sort of lovingly hesitant chaperon and +hostess of the accidental House Party, was now, doubtless to her own +surprise, the one to take the initiative: + +"Did I understand you to say, Mr. Poet, that what you just related was +strictly true?" + +"Yes, Madam, certainly," was the calm and unabashed reply of the person +addressed. + +"Thank you," was the gentle answer, "it was beautiful," and then she +turned to her husband, "Colonel, won't you please request one of the +stern business men here to tell something, something reliable, and of +the present time?" + +The Colonel's quizzical eye had, for some moments rested upon the +Broker, to the evident disquietude of that gentleman, though it was +clear that he would not seek to avoid the issue when his time for effort +came. He had not listened to the tale which had been told as intently +as he might and there was a look upon his face as of a man recalling +memories. He was mentally preparing himself for the Colonel's +onslaught--and it came. + +"Mr. Broker," said the genial tyrant, "gentlemen of your type in the +business world are about the best fellows going, and, as I know, from +listening interestedly a thousand times, are always telling good +stories, when not going crazy 'on 'change.' Your turn has come and your +fate is sealed beyond all peradventure. Sir, we await you." + +The Broker "accepted the situation:" "I've been anticipating this +emergency and have been preparing for it as much as possible. I don't +know that it is what might be called a strictly business story, but it +is that of how a friend of mine--an admirable man--made a lot of money +and gained one of the prettiest wives in the world. I think we might +call it + + LOVE AND A ZULU + +In every drop of the blue blood of St. Louis there is a bubble of +sporting blood. This is a love story of St. Louis, with filaments of +fact entwining themselves with the lighter filaments of fancy. The St. +Louis lover--of course, there are exceptions--loves with his whole +heart, and in his constant heart, with every pulsation, throbs the idea +of chance. So, the great city on the banks of the Father of Waters is a +city of honorable betting. + +John Driscoll was in trouble. John Driscoll, aged twenty-seven, was a +lone scion of one of the best families of St. Louis, a city where they +have good families, certainly. Driscoll's trouble was of the sort which +tries a man. He was desperately in love with a fair young woman, but +consent to the marriage was absolutely refused by the young woman's +father until Driscoll should be worth at least twenty thousand dollars; +and a very obstinate old gentleman was Mr. Cameron, who owned much real +estate and was looked upon as one of the solid men of a solid city. It +was not altogether a harsh impulse which had brought this decree from +him. He wanted Driscoll to show that he had business ability, for +Driscoll had been something of a figure socially and not much of a +figure otherwise. Mr. Cameron was very fond of his daughter Jessie. John +Driscoll had been left, on the death of his mother, with a fortune of +only eighteen thousand dollars; two thousand dollars were already gone +and he had earned nothing. In order, therefore, to meet the requirement +of his prospective father-in-law, he must, somehow, make four thousand +dollars. It may be said to his credit that he lacked neither earnestness +nor courage. He devoted himself at once to a vigorous endeavor to gain +the required sum. He worked with feverish earnestness. He became +solicitor for an insurance company, and, with his wide acquaintance, +made a moderate success of the business from the beginning. It was hard +to endure--for love is impatient--but the man did not flinch. At the end +of a year he had a little over eighteen thousand dollars in bank and +admirable prospects. But, as above wisely remarked, love is exceedingly +impatient. He was offered a chance in a speculation which promised to +gain for him two thousand dollars at once, and yielded to the +temptation--though persuaded against it by the girl he loved and who +loved him. Instead of gaining two thousand dollars, he lost two +thousand, and was back at the sixteen thousand dollar notch again. A +year had been wasted. + +At the northeast corner of Elm Street and Broadway is a famous +place--half restaurant, half summer garden--where theatre parties go, +and where the gilded youth of the city eat, drink and are merry. +Nonsensical propositions arise among these young gentlemen with money +and, in many instances, with brains as well. One evening at one of the +tables there arose a discussion over the old problem of whether or not +the ordinary man could eat thirty quail in thirty days. The discussion +became warm. "It is absurd," said a young man named Graham--"the whole +idea of it. Why, after a hard day's shooting in Texas, I once ate six +quail at a single meal. That means that even a man of my size can eat +thirty quail in five days, doesn't it?" + +"Well, it may or may not," was the response of a youth named Malvern, +one of the group; "but eating six quail in one day, or thirty quail in +six days, is not the matter under discussion. One of the most exquisite +forms of torture known to the Chinese, is to bind a prisoner so that he +cannot move his head, and then, from a reservoir above, allow drop after +drop of water to fall upon his head. At first it is nothing, but, +finally, there comes an uncomfortable sensation, then pain, and, in the +end, an exquisite agony. The victim dies or goes insane. A barrel of +water poured upon him at once would not have affected him at all. So it +is with eating thirty quail in thirty days. It is the monotony for all +those days--the thing that cannot be avoided--that tells." + +"Bah!" said Graham. "I don't take your view of the case. I've the +courage of my convictions, and I'll bet you five hundred dollars that I +will eat thirty quail in thirty days, breakfasting here at nine o'clock +each morning and eating my quail then." + +"Done!" was the prompt reply. "You're not the only fellow who has the +courage of his convictions. We'll appoint a committee of observation, +and breakfast here together regularly. There'll be fun in the thing, +whatever the outcome." + +The committee was appointed, and the next morning saw a hilarious group +seated about the table. Graham was full of confidence and jest. He +ordered his quail broiled, and his companions, out of compliment, +ordered the same thing. It was a breakfast enjoyed by all. Here follows +a summary of what happened on succeeding mornings: + +Breakfast Second.--Graham came in, still confident, and had a good +appetite, as appeared when he ordered broiled quail again and ate it +with much gusto. Of the five men at table two ate quail as well; the +others ordered beefsteak. + +Breakfast Third.--Graham's serenity was still unruffled. He ate his +quail broiled, as usual, and seemed to enjoy it, but he noticed that +none of his friends took quail. "I must have variety," said one of them. + +Breakfast Fourth--Graham said he must have indulged in too much +champagne the night before. He ordered his quail roasted for a change, +and ate it slowly--the committee of three watching him like hawks, to +see that he picked the bones clean. + +Breakfast Fifth.--The events of the meal were almost identical with +those of the day before, save that Graham required a little more time in +which to consume his bird. + +Breakfast Sixth.--Graham declared that, after all, we were behind the +English in our manner of cooking birds. They boiled two fowls to our +one. He ordered his quail boiled and picked away at it with some energy. +He certainly cleaned the bones with more ease than before. + +Breakfast Seventh.--Graham came in, looking bilious. He hesitated before +ordering, but finally decided that he would take his quail chopped up +into stew. There was some debate over this, and the committee finally +went into the restaurant kitchen, to see that nothing got away. The stew +seemed to please Graham and he made numerous jests at the expense of the +men, "who," he said, "had no stomachs." + +Breakfast Eighth.--Graham ordered quail stew again, but did not get +along so well as he had on the previous morning. He declared the bird to +be stale and said that it smelled "quailly." As a matter of fact, it was +a plump young bird, shot only the day before. + +Breakfast Ninth.--To the astonishment of everybody, Graham, who looked +more bilious than ever, ordered quail hash. The committee was indignant, +but there was no recourse, and so they were compelled to visit the +kitchen again and watch the career of the quail from plucking to plate. +Graham became furious. He said it was a shame to doubt the honesty of +the establishment. He ate the quail. + +It is unnecessary to continue in detail the story of the breakfasts in +the great restaurant. Each day Graham became more petulant and +unreasonable. All ways of cooking quail were at last exhausted, and +there was a compelled return to some of those already employed. Graham +by the fifteenth day had become haggard and the very odor of the +delicate bird, as it came in, brought to him a feeling of utmost nausea. +He was brusque with the faithful waiter, and took no interest in the +conversation of his friends. He was plucky, though, and managed, by +sheer force of will, to consume the distasteful ration. Meanwhile, the +wager had become the comment of the town, especially among the wealthy +youth, and thousands of dollars were staked upon the issue. The +restaurant was thronged each morning, and the proprietor wished he had +some such attraction to such a class throughout all the rotund year. +This notoriety but made the case of poor Graham worse; it made him more +anxious to succeed, but it unnerved him. + +On the twentieth day the odds, which had at first been in favor of +Graham, dropped to no odds at all, and on the twenty-second they were +against him. He came in with a pallid look upon his face and sat down +before his dainty fare. He took up his knife and fork; then suddenly +laid them down and left the place. Within ten minutes he returned with a +set face and resolutely performed his task. Where he had been was not +known at the time, but it was rumored, later, in the Southern Hotel +(which was in the same block) that there had been sold a half-pint +bottle of champagne that morning to a gentleman in a hurry. + +So, worse and worse became the man's condition, greater and greater his +abhorrence of what is counted a delicate bit of eating. On the +twenty-sixth morning he came in with a more closely hovering look of +apprehension than had yet been noticed. He sat down before the bird, +picked at it for a moment, rose from the table walked about for a while; +then came back, again and again, and considered what was before him. He +gasped, and, as he arose to his feet and started from the room, +exclaimed huskily: "It's no use, boys. I was mistaken. I can't do it. I +give up!" + +There was pity for him, especially among the minors, for he had done his +best. Many cheques were drawn that morning. + +Driscoll always breakfasted at this restaurant and had, naturally, +become interested in this droll struggle between man and quail. For a +day or two after his own loss he had been dazed and discouraged haunting +the lobbies of the Planter's, the Southern or the Lindell, and pitying +himself amazingly. All at once he braced up, to an extent, through the +influence of plucky little Jessie Cameron. "We must begin again--that's +all," said she, resolutely and cheerily. "Surely, you love me as much as +Jacob, who served twice seven years, for Rachel, and I admire you more +than I do Jacob--though I never liked his device concerning Esau. Begin +again, dear, and all will come right." + +And Driscoll did begin again with a vigor, though henceforth he referred +to Mr. Cameron as Laban to the indignation of the fair and filial +Jessie. + +The lover settled down to earnest work, did well and was becoming +contented and hopeful. This condition of mind enabled him to speculate +in his hours of ease upon something outside of his personal affairs. The +quail-eating contest had interested him, because he was an educated man, +and something of a student of the body. Why had Graham failed in the +eating of thirty quail in thirty days? Men eat thirty breakfasts in +thirty days and do not know they have done it. Hunters and miners eat +bacon alone--that is, as far as their meat goes--for months at a time +and think nothing of it. Why had Graham failed? + +Just as a matter of amusement, Driscoll tried to study the thing out: +"Man is omnivorous," he thought; "not a flesh-eater alone, and his range +of consumption is wide. He must have variety, even in flesh, as a +requirement of his stomach. Furthermore, man alone, among all creatures, +is imaginative, and, when forced to eat a certain thing, develops a +thousand fancies against it until it becomes revolting. It might be so, +very likely would be so, in the case of the beefsteak or the bacon. The +only animal which can live easily and uncomplainingly upon one kind of +flesh alone, live cheerfully and healthfully, like the lion or the tiger +or others of the carnivora, must be one accustomed to such purely flesh +diet and one without imagination." And Driscoll was right in his +conclusions. + +There existed at this time on Fourth Street, near Walnut, a dime museum +of the better sort. Among the attractions for the season were five Zulus +from Barnum's Circus--Zulus, most graceful of all savages, with their +incurved backs, broad chests, and the step of him of Kipling, who + + "Trod the ling + Like a buck in spring." + +and who, daily, for the edification of the populace, gave a great +exhibition of the throwing of the assegai. One of them was a woman and +she could speak English. + +"A human being accustomed to a flesh diet and without imagination, +wouldn't he be a wonder to these joyous bettors?" thought Driscoll. Then +he almost gasped as he leaned back. He had dropped into the dime museum +on Fourth Street that morning, having business with the proprietor, and +had noted the performance of the Zulus admiringly. "A human being living +on flesh exclusively and without imagination almost concerning food." +Here were a group, all of whom had throughout their lives, until +imported, lived, practically, upon flesh alone--the half-cooked flesh of +the herds. Flesh alone was what their stomachs craved. Additionally, +they had no imagination concerning food--no morbid fancies. They only +wanted meat and plenty of it--and the rest be hanged! Driscoll saw it +all. He thought for an hour and then there came upon his face the look +of a man who is going to break a jam of pine logs in some Northern river +or drown beneath the timber. He called at the dime museum. + +"Gregory," said he, "I want to borrow your best Zulu." + +"_Borrow what?_" said Gregory. + +"A Zulu." + +"What do you mean? Tell me about it." + +"I'll explain. You know all about the quail-eating contest, where Graham +failed. You've got a man who won't fail." Then he explained all he had +thought out. The museum proprietor--acute man--became excited: "I'll do +anything you say," he promised. + +The next morning, Driscoll was breakfasting as usual in the swell +restaurant with the usual group--Graham, somewhat recovered, among them. +They were still talking of the recent eating exploit, when, in the midst +of the debate, Driscoll spoke, calmly: "I'll wager that I can produce a +man who can eat thirty quail in thirty days. The committee who served in +Graham's case shall serve in this. The only thing that I ask is that the +eating be done upon the stage in the dime museum near the corner of +Fourth and Walnut Streets, and just after we have had breakfast here +each morning. I'll provide tickets for all those directly interested in +the result." + +There arose a clamor. Not a man among all the gilded young men present +believed now that any man could eat thirty quail in thirty days. +Driscoll had deliberated and had dared. He had brought with him two +thousand dollars of his remaining fortune. He got odds at first of four +to one; then three to one; then two to one. He stood to lose two +thousand dollars, or win between five and six thousand. + +There was among the Zulus a stalwart young man whose assegai sank +deepest into the wooden target, who was a model of strength and wild, +unknowing lustiness, and who had but lately left his tribe in Southern +Africa. Little but flesh had ever passed his mouth as food. He was told, +through the English-speaking woman, that there was a little bird--the +sweetest in the country--one of which would be given him each morning +because he had thrown the assegai so well for the white man's +edification. He smacked his lips, strutted and became excited. + +Next morning occurred a scene heretofore unknown to the dime museum. In +the front seats was the cream of society, so far as young men were +concerned, and all the other seats were filled, because the wise +proprietor of the place had seen to it that news so important had gone +abroad. No theatre in all the town drew such a fashionable audience as +did this dime museum. It was a scene most edifying and altogether +blithesome and lighthearted, and one having a special interest. + +There was not much of a pause. The Zulu, accompanied by the committee, +came upon the stage--the gentleman from South Africa with glittering +eyes and a look of hungry expectancy upon his face. Then, a moment +later, came in a waiter with a quail--roasted whole and temptingly +displayed upon a tray. The Zulu gazed at it for a minute; then suddenly +picked it up by the legs; thrust the head and breast of the bird into +his mouth and crunched savagely. He was delighted. A moment later, he +tossed the legs away and looked for more. He had simply chewed the bird +and swallowed bones and all! + +And so, each day, for twenty-nine days the absurd performance was +repeated. It was quite unnecessary to change the style of cooking, +though the breast bones were removed by order of the committee, out of a +probably unnecessary regard for the digestion of this human personage +brought up on meat half raw. He but clamored for more on each occasion +and was pacified only through the intervention of the woman who +promised that soon he was to have a feast. She was telling him the +truth. Driscoll and Gregory had arranged upon a spectacular termination +of the contest--a contest which already, as everybody saw, was +determined as to its issue. Through the interpreter, the Zulu was +informed that on the thirtieth day he was to have, not only the quail, +but a large bird--one worthy the appetite of a warrior--a bird known in +this strange country as turkey and very good to eat. The strong thrower +of the assegai could hardly restrain himself. He was to have a feast at +last! + +The thirtieth morning came, and the quail disappeared as usual. Then, in +a stately procession, came waiters--the first bearing a huge roast +turkey. Behind him came others with the American accompaniments to the +roast turkey, and all was set before the Zulu. There followed a sight +worth seeing. The turkey was utterly demolished; the contents of the +side dishes were consumed and the dishes themselves licked to a +housewifely cleanness. For the first time in thirty days the Zulu gave a +grunt of satisfaction. When all accounts were settled, the fortune of +John Driscoll amounted to just twenty-two thousand one hundred and +eighty dollars and twenty-seven cents. + +And so ended the second of the great quail-eating contests in St. Louis. +Perhaps it was wrong, perhaps Driscoll shouldn't have won his money in +the way he did; but in St. Louis there remains, as said in the +beginning, much of the venturesome but always clean and honorable +sporting spirit of the South, and in this case nobody was hurt, to speak +of. They could afford it, and all, winners and losers, had enjoyed +themselves. + +But facing Driscoll were still two appalling situations. There were +Jessie and Mr. Cameron. Here the young man conducted himself with a +diplomacy which was vastly to his credit. He went to Jessie, threw +himself on her mercy and confessed all in detail--confessed everything. +She was confused and maybe shocked; but a woman in love is kindly, and a +woman in love with a man of force wants to become his wife. + +"How will you explain to Father?" said the thoughtful maiden. + +"I'll arrange it, somehow," said the now confident and buoyant Driscoll. + +He visited Mr. Cameron and gave satisfactory proof to the old gentleman +that he was now the possessor of over twenty thousand dollars. + +"But how did you gain the money so soon, boy?" said Mr. Cameron. "I +heard that you lost a thousand or two." + +Driscoll's face sobered. "I should think that no one better than you, +Mr. Cameron, would understand the necessity on the part of a business +man of keeping secret his methods and the relations of his business +affairs. Pardon me--I am not yet your son-in-law." + +"Right you are, Driscoll!" was the immediate response. "You're a +business man, after all!" + +It was not long before Driscoll became the son-in-law in fact. Then he +told the whole story to his father-in-law. + +"Hum! ha!" said the old gentleman, musingly. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +AT BAY SOFTLY + + +Stafford had at frequent intervals during the day been in communication +with the relief train and had received neither encouragement nor the +opposite. There had been a sharp questioning of a new man in charge, a +person who seemed to know his business thoroughly, but who was far from +voluble in conversation. Evidently the emergency had been thought such +as to require the presence of someone of greater versatility than was +likely to be possessed by the train crew, but from this new overseer the +questioner received but little satisfaction. In fact the boss had seemed +not altogether open and candid in his statements and Stafford had become +a trifle irritated. He put the case lightly, for the man to whom he was +talking was evidently bright: + +"I'm not altogether satisfied with your answers. We people imprisoned +here have a right to know exactly what the outlook is. Why don't you +come to me more like a child to its mother? We are cutting wood for +fuel, and the food supply is getting low. What are you doing over +there?" + +"Are you a railroad man?" + +"Well, I've seen a railroad." + +"You ought to know what this job is then. It's a pretty tough one." + +"I know it, but why don't you answer my questions more definitely? Have +you anything up your sleeve?" + +"Possibly; my sleeves are pretty big. This I'll tell you, though, that I +think we're all right. I'd tell you more if I felt sure myself. We're +going to try something. That's all." + +Somehow, this elated Stafford. He felt that he had been talking to a man +who knew what he was about and he became confident that release was +close at hand. But was he elated, after all? Release would mean that +there would remain but two more days of Her, for, in such event, within +two days the train would be in Chicago. He was in a most uncertain mood. + +He was restless and unreasonable. Why to him should come such perplexity +in life, such trial to one who had banished himself to avoid temptation? +Yet, here it was, thrust in his way again, and he must be once more a +Tantalus. He became mightily impatient as he brooded and wished that he +had Fate where he could punish her. Just what he would do with that lady +in such contingency he hardly knew. He got to speculating upon that and +had all sorts of fancies. He conceived the grotesque idea that the +ducking-stool would be about the thing. The association of Fate with the +ducking-stool seemed somewhat incongruous, it is true, something in the +way of an anachronism, it was such a far cry from Homer to New England, +but that didn't matter. She certainly deserved the ducking-stool,--and +then he could not but laugh at himself and his vexed fancies. It was a +trait of Stafford that, whatever the situation, he was certain in +turning it over in his mind, to give it some fantastic sidelight, which +diverted his attention, and that generally relieved him. The idea of +having Fate in the ducking-stool appealed to him just now and smoothed +his mood. How would that arbitrary lady, she who had had her own way +with the world so long, conduct herself under such trying circumstances, +for trying he inferred they were, from old prints which he had studied +with great interest in his childhood. He imagined the way in which her +long hair would float out upon the water as the shore end of the board +went up and she, in the chair at the other end, went down and under +water, and, in imagination, he could hear her gasp a little, stubborn as +she is reputed to be. How would she behave and comport herself after the +third or fourth dip? Would she prove amenable and, when she had got her +breath, pledge herself to be henceforth and for all time a little more +considerate of the comfort of humanity? For lovers especially would she +exhibit a more kindly and understanding regard? If not, why, then, under +she must go again! + +So he ambled on foolishly and to his own relief. An admirable thing for +Stafford was it that these whimsies so often seized upon him, equally +when he was enraged or distressed, it didn't matter which. They helped +to tide him over the mental emergency. Happy the man who has such an odd +streak in the composition of his under-nature. + +"Still," Stafford laughed to himself, "I am an abused man. I am a victim +of atrocious circumstances. I'm an injured being, and I'm at bay! I'm +going to turn and make the best of it savagely. I'll have, at least, +the comfort of looking into a pair of eyes and listening to a voice. +I'll go and talk to Her." + +And he went into the next car and seated himself beside the Far Away +Lady, who received him kindly. He resolved to indulge himself in her +companionship for a time, though against his better judgment. He knew +that he was but making his trial the harder to bear. + +"Do you know," he said, after the first greeting, "that I wish I could +sing?" + +"And why do you wish that?" she queried. + +"Because, if I could, I would get off the train and wade through the +snow away out to that clump of evergreens you see there two-thirds of +the way up the slope--which would be out of hearing from here--and I +would get behind the evergreens, out of sight, and sing something +dolorous." + +"Why would you do that?" + +"I hardly know myself. I suppose it would be something in the mood and +the way of the old troubadours, who, when things went wrong, murmured +'Alack' and sought the silent places and engaged in dismal vocalism." + +"But don't you think it was rather foolish of them?" ventured the Far +Away Lady. + +"I don't know about that. It must have been a sort of relief. Groaning +is a great relief when you are hurt. I noticed that particularly among +my workmen in Siberia, whenever one of them had been injured in an +accident. Very fine groaners they were, too." + +"But what nonsense you are talking"--there was a note of more than +anxiety in her voice--"has something happened? Tell me, John. Has +anything occurred to-day to disturb you?" + +"Nothing, madam, nothing at all. Do you know what is meant by +'cumulative repression?' Well I'm suffering from 'cumulative +repression.' That's all. There are different kinds of the disease and +mine is of the sort for which there is nothing one can take." + +"I don't understand you, John." + +"No? Well, I don't seem to make myself very clear, it is true. I didn't +explain 'cumulative' as thoroughly as I might have done. It's this way: +Suppose you were compelled to take some drug the effect of which is +known as 'cumulative.' The first dose would have little effect, and so +on, up to a certain time. Then something would happen, and that +something would be a result just the same as if you had taken all the +doses at once--mighty serious, possibly. In my case I don't, as yet, +know just how serious the effect is. I think--at least I hope--that I +will recover. I seem to feel it wearing off a shade, but I'm not quite +sure. The consequences of 'cumulative repression' are sometimes most +serious. Insanity has been known to come. But, as for me, 'I am not mad, +I am not mad,' I'm only a little--I'm only wandering in my mind." + +Then, all at once, his mood changed to something absolutely earnest and +his look was pitifully appealing as he leaned toward her: + +"Oh, Lady Leech, can you do nothing for me?" + +She did not answer him. She understood. She knew, as well as if he had +told her in simpler words, that he had almost failed in his high resolve +and that he had come to her, feverish, in a half madness, to be upheld +and strengthened, or otherwise to be dealt with, as she would. She +realized it all, and thought silently, struggling with herself as he +might never know. But the good, both for his sake and hers, was strong +within her and finally came her soft reply: + +"You know, John, that I would help you if I could, but you know that I +cannot, that I must not, even a little." + +Her's was a great sympathy, yet, in the midst of it all, there was +something she could not understand. She had heard that of him, from +China, which made this scene incomprehensible. She knew that there was +not a trace of acting, that there was no craft nor design about him, and +she was but lost in a maze of troubled doubt. There was her own heart. +An overwhelming pity overcame her, but she could not express it. + +He sat looking at her, silent, sad, studying. Then, suddenly, he +returned to earth again; his face lightened: + +"What nonsense I've been talking to you! I will go into the other car +and encourage the Colonel in the arena," and so he left her. + +But there was a mist in her eyes as he went out. How he had reminded her +of the Stafford of old, in the days when they were careless! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +LOVE WILL FIND THE WAY + + +The Colonel was royally in his element now. On no occasion before during +all the time of detention had he played with so free a hand or felt +himself so much an element of good among his fellow creatures. The +psychological hour had come for him. + +"We should congratulate ourselves," he resonantly declared. "Where else +or under what other circumstances could have been accidentally assembled +such a number of people so qualified to minister mentally to each other +and make otherwise dead hours breathe as we who are here now looking +into each other's eyes?" Then, very properly, feeling that he had +expressed himself rather finely, he continued, "We will not waste the +shining hour. We must have other stories. Mr. Showman, have you anything +to say?" + +Had the Colonel not known very well what he was about his last sentence +would have been as tactless as it seemed to everybody cruel, and even +his trusting and admiring wife looked upon him in a startled way as he +thus addressed himself to an exceedingly florid man in somewhat florid +garb, but with, nevertheless, an air of intelligence of the better sort +and one of general understanding. He had been a not infrequent visitor +and had listened quietly and with evident delight to what he had heard. +The Colonel had not offended him in the least by the blunt application +of the word "showman." The two knew each other and, besides, the title +belonged to him properly and he was not at all ashamed of it. On the +contrary, he was rather proud of it. He looked at the Colonel in a +meditative way and took his time. He had faced audiences--though, +perhaps, none quite so select, before--and finally remarked, very simply +and to the admiration of everybody: + +"You can't expect much of a plain, uneducated showman, but I know of one +story, a sort of love story, too, which a friend of mine who owns a dime +museum told me. I'm in the circus business myself, so do not know as +much about what you might call family details as he would, but this is +what he gave me. He was tickled and used some large words: + + LOVE WILL FIND THE WAY + +The Ossified Man was in love with the Fat Woman. Such things happen. Men +are falling in love with women every day and apparent absurdities and +incongruities do not count. Love asks no odds. The Ossified Man was in +love with the Fat Lady. She weighed six hundred and eighty-three pounds; +he weighed just eighty-three. It may have been that this singular +coincidence, as shown on the billboards throughout the city, first drew +the two together. Who can tell? They became acquainted and then began +one of the love affairs of the thousand myriads, with which the world is +at all times occupied. + +The Fat Lady was fair to look upon. She had the tremendous advantage of +being a landscape as well as a personality. She was, somehow, healthy, +and her far-outstanding flesh was firm and white, despite her +mountainous proportions. She rose and fell rythmatically as a mass with +each inhalation of her fortunately great lungs and reminded one, in a +way, of a volcano half quiescent. This, though, would be an utterly +wrong simile. There was nothing fiery about her. Her round face showed +but a somewhat intensified benevolence. Upon second thought--because she +had what she deemed taste in dress and wore a variety of outside ribbon +things upon her looming corsage and vast flowers upon her hat--she +reminded one, billowy and heaving and with green and flowery things atop +her, of the ever soft and rolling and lifting Sargasso Sea. She was a +good girl in her way and had come from Indiana. + +The Ossified man was nearly six feet in height, was one of the best +known specimens in the show world of what may be called an animated +stalactite and could scarcely be called ungraceful though a slightly too +robust skeleton. His joints were singularly flexible yet and his +digestion and his mind were active. "Stone walls do not a prison make, +nor iron bars a cage." Thus he explained the quality of the personality +of the two. + +The wooing of the Ossified Man was in the nature of an innovation. He +recognized the attitude in the community occupied by his inamorata and +himself, not merely toward each other but with relation to all the +outside world, and he conducted himself accordingly. + +What the Ossified Man did--and it is greatly to his credit--was to do +what any other man of his grade would do. Neither he nor the Fat Woman +were highly educated but each had been through a school and each had +read and could understand things and each had intelligence and no little +sentiment. As remarked, the Ossified Man made his advances as would any +other man of his degree. The two came to understand each other in a way +and the Fat Woman began to feel somewhere, far away in her system, +something she had never felt before. In truth she was beginning to fall +in love with the Ossified Man. Not being a fool, the Ossified Man knew +it. He realized the fact that he had found another being of the other +sex, of good sense, though out of the common in appearance, as +sentimental as he, the great heart once fairly stirred. Affairs drifted. +He knew that he was going to propose to her and she knew that he was +going to ask her to be his wife. That reflection, somehow, startled her +throughout all her vast being, though a dim sub-consciousness told her +that she liked him much. As for him, he resolved to stake the future +upon a single poem he sent to her, confident that she would accept it +gravely. And these are the few lines she received: + + "All flesh is grass, and grass must turn to clay; + All bones must turn to dust, and we are they! + Since thus we turn, my own, my Colleen Bawn, + Why not unite before our breath is gone? + It is the judgment ever of the sage + That happiness is in the average; + What better equipoise than you and I, + What more assured? O, sweetheart, let us try!" + +The Fat Woman was impressed but, more than that, and better in ten +thousand ways, she was delighted that the man she realized she loved had +finally dared to express himself, though in this odd, sentimental way. +She thought much and then--there is shade of correction added--she wrote +this letter: + + "Dear Jim:--I understand your poem. I won't fool a bit. I care + for you, Jim, as you care for me. But we will be a joke if we + get married now. Can't you see that, Jim? Can't we get more + like each other before we get married? We have both saved quite + a lot of money. Oh, Jim, if you'll try to get thicker, I'll try + to get thinner. + + "Lovingly, + "SARAH." + +The Ossified Man read that letter and went out and walked up and down +the streets for hours. He was the happiest and most perplexed man in all +the big city. His heart at least wasn't ossified. + +He remembered a professor who had studied him and whom he had heard say +to those about that there was no occasion for the continued +ossification in such a subject, provided the stomach was all right. +"I'll go to that old professor," he said, "and I'll put the case to his +giblets in a way to make him salty round the eyes. And I'll write all +about it to my little girl, God bless 'er!" + +So his "little girl" got the letter and cried largely and with vast +resources and, as we say, "braced up." "He is good, my Jim," she said to +herself; "and I'll meet him half way, God bless him! I know a professor +too, and I'll see him." + +So each went to a professor. + +Professor McFlush was the doctor whose portrait accompanied an +advertisement regularly in the Sunday papers, and whom the Ossified Man +had in mind. He didn't hesitate an instant after an examination of what +there was of his patient. "I'll cure you in no time if you follow my +directions," he declared. "My Sulphuretted Tablets will knock out the +ossification and as for the rest it's all diet." + +"What diet?" asked the Ossified Man. + +"Hash!" roared the doctor. "Do you drink much?" + +"Naw," said the Ossified Man. + +"Well, you've got to--hash--hash and porter. Hash is fattening, the +potatoes in it does it. Porter is fattening, the malt in it does it. +Them and my tablets together will do the business--seventeen tablets a +day--dollar a bottle, thirty-four in a bottle. Five tablets before +breakfast, and for breakfast hash and two bottles of porter. Dinner the +same; supper the same. Anything else you want eat or drink all day long. +Last two tablets just before you go to bed. Get your prescriptions +filled here. Get your porter over at Johnson's wholesale grocery, I've +made an arrangement with him. Ten dollars. Report weekly. Good day." + +And the Ossified Man took up his task for Love's sake. + +It was to Professor Slocum that the Fat Woman went. Professor Slocum was +brisk and small but he had a way with the ladies. + +The Fat Woman believed in him implicitly from the moment they met. + +"Do you eat much?" was the first query of the Professor. + +"Yes sir, considerable." + +"Do you drink much?" + +"Yes sir, some ale, and water most all the time." + +"Madam, I am astonished! Keep on with that diet and you'll weigh half a +ton before you die, and you'll die within six months." + +The Fat Woman gasped and turned pallid. She was influenced not only by +love but by acute alarm. + +The Professor looked upon her benignly. + +"Madam," he said, "I can save you. My condensed Food Tablets and my +Spirituelle Waters will do the business. The tablets will afford you +sufficient sustenance for existence without affording any element for +the increase of adipose tissue, while my Spirituelle Waters will gratify +your thirst--the more you drink of them the better--while, at the same +time, they will exercise an influence of their own. Get your tablets +here at this office--fifty cents a hundred--Spirituelle Waters here +too--quart bottles, twenty-five cents a bottle. Prescription: ten +tablets and one bottle of the water to a meal; another bottle of the +Waters before retiring. Drink all the Spirituelle Water you want during +the day. Ten dollars. Report fortnightly. Good afternoon." + +The professors knew their business. There could be no doubt of that. Not +with any sunburst, so to speak, but steadily and day by day, the +Ossified Man increased in flexibility and tissue and the Fat Woman +decreased in fat. + +There came a day when the Museum manager observed the change and sent +for the Ossified Man. + +"What's the matter, Jim?" asked the potentate. + +"Nothing that I know of," was the answer. + +"Do you weigh any more than you did, Jim?" + +"About twenty-five pounds, I believe," was the hesitating answer. + +"I'll see you in my Office at two o'clock this afternoon." + +Then the Fat Woman was sent for and questioned. + +"How much do you weigh, Sarah?" was the first query. + +"Six hundred and twenty-three pounds, sir," was the truthful answer. + +"Huh!" said the manager. "Sixty pounds gone Sarah! I'll see you in my +Office at two o'clock this afternoon." + +An hour later the Ossified Man and the Fat Woman were engaged in earnest +conversation. After a pause the Fat Woman remarked thoughtfully: + +"Jim, we're going to get the g. b." + +"Looks that way," said the Ossified Man. + +"Do you care much?" + +"Nope," said the Ossified Man, "only I wish we each could have gathered +in our fifty per for another six months or so." + +"Well, I don't care!" said the Fat Woman, lovingly and desperately. +"I've saved up about six thousand and you've got about five, and the +three or so can go." + +"Suits me," said the Ossified Man. + +The meeting in the manager's office that afternoon was spirited but +good-natured. + +"Heard you'd got stuck on each other and were trying to size up +together," said the manager. + +"About the size of it," said the Ossified Man. + +"Well, it strikes me that there are two sizes yet," said the manager, +"but that doesn't matter. You are knocking out two of my attractions. +I'll have to let you both go at the end of the week." + +"All right," said the Ossified Man, good-naturedly. "But," he added, as +a second thought struck him, "say, Sarah is going one way and I'm going +the other and there is no telling how far we may happen to pass. It +might happen that we might want a job again. Now when I come back as +the Fat Man, and she as the Ossified Woman, will you take us on?" + +The manager roared: "Yes, when you come back weighing six hundred and +eighty-three, and Sarah eighty-three, I'll engage you, you bet!" + +The Fat Woman listened approvingly. + +And now the two are on a fine farm in Indiana and are happy. She still +takes Professor Slocum's Condensed Food Tablets and Spirituelle Waters, +and he still takes Professor McFlush's Sulphuretted Tablets and porter, +and they are growing more and more alike in appearance, as they are in +thoughts and aims, and have the best and most comfortable understanding. +But they'll never get back to the Museum. They wouldn't if they could. + +Isn't it wonderful what love can do! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +A LITERARY LOVE AFFAIR + + +There was laughter, naturally, over the Showman's absurd, yet not +altogether unsentimental story and, after its recital he stood, +undoubtedly, more nearly on a social footing with the others. There were +his clothes, of course, and another excrudescence or two, but these were +incidentals. The wayfarers did not even yawn, but looked inquiringly at +the beaming and bestowed-by-Providence Colonel. + +After all, it is doubtful if there be anything better in the world than +a spinster--if she be of the right sort. Of course all spinsters are not +of the right sort; few of us are. When this one especially fine spinster +was called upon by the Colonel she did not know exactly what to do. She +should have been as perfectly at ease and as possessed of aplomb as any +voluptuously beautiful poser in a ball-room, yet she was somewhat +embarrassed. She should not have been. She was an exquisitely beautiful +woman, in the view of those who know things. With her thin nose and +thin lips and general expression of cultivation and eyes in which showed +loving regard and thinking, she was adorable to those upon whose eyes +had been rubbed the great ointment of perception. Her one hundred and +twenty-five pounds of existing womanhood, neat and good, was worth far +more than its weight in gold or any other metal. When called upon this +is what the spinster said most bravely: + +"Colonel Livingstone, there is but one untold story of which I know and +I wish I were capable of explaining to all of you how full of real life +it was. Yet it seems so simple and silly that it is commonplace, though +it isn't. Do you remember, Colonel, about the great tower of the +Campanile, in Venice and the square down upon the pavements of which the +pigeons flutter to be fed? Well this is a story--a true one--of +something like those same pigeons and the Doge who first instituted the +feeding of them, five hundred years ago, or something like that, only +the scene and time are different. As you know, Colonel, I live in +Chicago, and this is but the story of the pigeons of St. Mark's +transferred to the corner of Clark and Madison streets in a city in +another hemisphere. And, as I said, it is all true. This is what +actually happened." + + A LITERARY LOVE AFFAIR + +This is a love story of two of the class who know things. Margaret +Selwyn was a graduate of one of the bluest women's colleges between the +two seas, and, more than that, she had a background of home culture and +refinement, having parents of brains. She came from college with those +acquirements, which shine exteriorly, and had an incurved back, and was +"tailor made" from head to heel, yet having within her all that +gentleness and greatness of heart which make a woman better than +anything else, not even excluding the strawberry upon which the Right +Reverend Bishop pronounced such a sincere eulogy. + +As to the man, Henry Bryant, he belonged socially and in all other ways +to the same class as the woman, even in brains and goodness, +considering, of course, the limitations of sex. Each of these two +occupied a social position--if such a thing as recognized social +position be defined enough in the United States--distinctly understood +by the people who knew them. Each was arrogant and self-sustained, and +each thoroughly and admiringly in love with the other. It was wonderful +how these two, each accustomed to be obeyed, and each, in a gentle way, +unconsciously dominant with those about, grew close and yielding +together. Each recognized the masterfulness, feminine or masculine, of +the other, and there came a great sweetness to the understanding. Yet to +these two, well-poised and mentally well-equipped, came gusts and +showers of difference of opinion. The man tried to be dignified and +self-contained upon these occasions, but, as a rule, failed miserably. +The woman didn't even try. + +But these differences throughout the months of their engagement resulted +in no tragedy of importance. They both had so much of the salt of humor +in their composition that they recognized the folly of even a momentary +antagonism, and each laughed and begged the other's pardon or rendered +the equivalent of that performance. They smiled together over their +mutual short lapses of realization of what it is that makes the world go +round. + +At such times as they quarreled the man would tell her the foolish but +probably true story of the Irishman who came annually whooping into town +at fair time in some old Irish village, whirling his shillalah above +his head and announcing to all the world that he was "blue-mouldy for +want of a batin'." And, after this comparison, Bryant would announce, in +strictest confidence, to his sweetheart, that this blessed Irishman +never failed to get his "batin'," and that there were "others" even unto +this day. + +And so it came, in time, that this man, in love with a woman, called her +his "blue-mouldy" girl, and this came to be the sweetest title in the +heart of each. + +With all the saving grace of the sense of proportion, which is a good +part of the sense of humor, and with all their love and understanding of +each other, with such characters it was inevitable that something must +happen. There are laws of Nature. Vesuvius gets dyspeptic. Certain Javan +islands spill up into the sky and the world has red sunsets for a while. +One day, this woman, good product of a good race, sat in her parlor +awaiting her lover. She was reading a book as she waited. + +Now as to certain facts: Miss Selwyn was in her literary tastes an +Ibsenite, Hardyite, Jamesite, or something of that sort. Bryant was a +Kiplingite or Conan Doyleite. She trimmed close to something sere, and +where nerves were. He was chiefly in his literary tendencies "Let her +go, Gallagher!" + +Margaret, having become absorbed in her book, looked up with saddened +eyes from her literary draft of wormwood and tea, with the beginning of +beautifully creased brows, to note the entrance of some lusty flesh and +blood. Less in accord in mood and thought than were these, for the +instant, never existed two people on the face of the earth, earnest +lovers though they were and of about the same quality of thought and +being. Something had to happen. + +"Why weep ye by the tide, Ladye?" began Bryant, glancing at the face of +his sweetheart, and from that to the book she had laid aside. As she did +not reply immediately, he continued, taking up the volume: + +"Is it The Han't that Walks or The Browning of the Overdone Biscuit that +has lowered your spirits?" + +"I don't know what you are talking about," she said. + +"Neither do I," said he. + +There they were, he, overcoat still on and hat in hand, and she sitting +there and looking up at him but still enwrapped in a more or less +emotional feverishness contracted from the volume in his hand. Any +purely objective onlooker would have required no announcement of the +approaching "circus." + +The girl made an effort to recover command of herself. "Leave your hat +and overcoat with the maid," she said, "and come and sit here in the +window and look at the lake, while I read to you the beautiful ending of +the story I have just finished." + +"I will stay," Bryant declared; "I was going to ask you to go with me to +the park and idle among the chrysanthemums, but this will be better." +And he seated himself near the window. "May I be allowed to look at you, +instead of following your advice to the letter and keeping my eyes upon +the cold, gray lake water outside?" he continued. "No matter what I +hear, I shall be content if I can see you." + +Miss Selwyn flushed a little, but laughed good-humoredly. + +Here the purely objective looker-on afore-mentioned might murmur over +the foolhardiness of man when he meets, unawares and all +uncomprehendingly, one of the bewildering moods of an impressionable +sweetheart. The contented male creature rushed blindly to his fate. + +"Before you begin, dear, tell me; tell me it is not Tolstoi or Ibsen you +are going to read, nor yet George Meredith or Sarah Grand!" + +At the last reference Miss Selwyn's eyes began to flash dangerously. + +"You know I detest her!" she exclaimed. + +"Do you refer to all four of the writers I mentioned as of the feminine +gender?" inquired Bryant with an appearance of fervid interest. The fool +was actually enjoying it all. + +Seeing that her lover was only chaffing, Margaret made a brave effort, +settled herself in her chair and found the place in her book. + +"Before you begin--I beg your pardon," said Bryant deferentially, "but +let me say that I was up late last night, and if I can't keep awake +under the spell of your voice, don't blame me. Wake me up at the +catastrophe, when the distant door slams or somebody breaks a teacup." + +Miss Selwyn laid the volume down again, and, still smiling, answered +quietly but a shade frostily: + +"It would take something written with a mixture of raw brandy, blood and +vermilion paint to arrest your attention, I believe! Your authors write +with--with--an ax in place of a pen. But I can't harrow up my own +imagination with their horrors, much less read them aloud!" + +"An exclusive regime of problem novels, plays and moralizings on +pessimistic lines is bad for the mental digestion," admitted Bryant in +judicial tones. "Poor girl! I must teach you to live in and love this +beautiful, violent, sweet and good old world of ours--the world of real +nature, real men and women, and real literature!" + +"I thank you for your indulgent, patronizing intentions," she flashed +back at him. "You would feed butterflies on brawn, teach the bluebird to +scream like a macaw, make the trembling, silver-leaved white birches all +over into oaks." + +"My dear Margaret--" stammered Bryant, starting up, but he could not lay +the spirit he had raised. + +"There are questions in life that cannot be settled by the stroke of a +sword or ax," she went on. "Your favorite writer has smirched the fair +figure of childhood in his brutal pictures of boys' life. He has made an +unwholesome, disgusting thing out of what should be and is healthful and +fine. How can you, who read him with patience, carp at my taste for what +seems to me well thought and well expressed?" + +"The effect of your favorites upon you to-day has not been particularly +reassuring," said Bryant, more stirred by Margaret's tone and manner +than by her words. Seeing that he had angered her, and trying to stem +the tide of her indignation, he still blundered most flagrantly, and +within a half hour the quarrel had culminated in an avowed separation +for the rest of their lives, Bryant leaving the house in a state of +indignant misery such as fond and over-confident lovers alone may know. + +Not a word had been said, this time, about the "blue-mouldy" girl. The +atmosphere had been too electric, the mood too tense for a laughing +word. + +Then followed silence between these two. Stubborn pride on the part of +the woman, proud stubbornness on the part of the man. They were +earnestly and faithfully in love, but each waited to hear the first word +of forgiveness. + +Bryant did write, but in his preoccupation left his letter upon the desk +unposted, and in a day it was snowed under by his unopened or carelessly +glanced at mail. Of course he misunderstood Miss Selwyn's silence and +she resented his. + +One Sunday morning Margaret, with an innate grasping and running back to +the faith in which she had been bred, sought help at the source which +best suited her--the relief which comes from religion. + +It so chances that there is a shrine upon the bank of the Ganges. It so +chances that there is what we call a Mecca. It so chances that we all +occasionally seek our shrines. + +Margaret Selwyn sat in her shrine, the outgrown old Episcopal Cathedral +on Washington Boulevard, and listened to her pastor, one of the great +old men who have grown up with a creed, but with thought and lovingness; +one who has learned how to heal wounds, the wounds of which no tongue +can tell, and how to advise genially and generally as to the affairs of +life. Somehow, the old gentleman, with his white hair and robes, his +simple, clean, old-fashioned honesty, had imparted to her a strength and +faith in God which calmed and helped her. It may be there could not have +been imparted to her by any one else in the world, politics and power +and inherited splendor all considered, as much as could this plain old +man. + +The white-robed boys sang their recessional, and she became perhaps +clearer and more comprehensive of mind than before she entered the +church--certainly more equipoised than she had been for days. + +Meditatively alive to the quiet of this Sunday noon, Miss Margaret +Selwyn, as she neared the centre of the city, stopped short and looked +about her. Where was she? + +The pavement of the street was gray-blue, spotted with white, and +gleaming here and there with the iridescent living tints of bird +plumage. The air was winged by soft forms, and a crowd of idlers were +scattering grains of corn upon the ground to lure and keep in sight the +most graceful creatures that live between the sky and earth. + +Against a sky as blue as that of Venice two snow-white pigeons were +flying straight down the street toward their companions. A swarthy +Italian stood with the birds almost under his feet, but, save the dark +face of the street-vender, the pigeons and the perfect sky, the picture +involuntarily imaged in Miss Selwyn's mind was all away and awry. + +Here was no stately tower, remote and solitary as a recluse in a worldly +throng; no Byzantine temple delighted her eye with its warm and gracious +humanity of suggestion. The vast sunny space of the Venetian square, +with its columned coffee-houses and shops, was in spirit and in truth +far removed from here. St. Mark's, and the place where the dream of a +moment had arisen in an impressionable mind, might have been on two +different planets, so opposed were they in every outline, spirit and +detail--save one: the fluttering, flying, eager, unafraid pigeons. + +The sun shot side glances down through the thoroughfare and really did +some good on this day, because this was the day of the Nazarene, and +even the money-seekers on this day had abandoned in their affairs the +consumption of bituminous coal. That is why on Sunday, in one of the +greatest cities in the world, the air is clear and the breath better. +That is one reason why, on Sunday, the American cousins of the "pigeons +of St. Mark's" come fluttering from somewhere about the city, from only +the Maker of them knows where, and dip downward out of the ether +trustingly to the feet of the passer-by, be he thug or preacher. + +Miss Selwyn had never heard of the vast flock of doves which dwell in +security among the towering buildings of the city. Their wings flash +across wide darkling streets all day, welcome to every careworn man who +watches, for a moment, their graceful flight. They were here before her +now--there, parading strutting, looking up hopefully toward the men +about them, each eagerly seeking the next flip of the corn. They +were--and are to-day--because of some gracious instinct in humanity, the +best casual street exemplification of what is best in human nature. + +They dripped and dropped from somewhere almost simultaneously. There was +one who strutted the most struttingly and whose only really justifiable +claim was that from crown to midway of his body he had such iridescent +purple as all the shell-opening fishermen of Tyre and Sidon never +devised half-way. There was another one, a quaint little maiden, who +will probably marry some English nobleman of the birds, snow-white, with +strange geometrical lines crisscross about her back, and who was almost +duplicated by a dozen or two others of her breed. There were two rufous +things, the red of whose top and back lapsed into a white beneath, +almost as exquisitely as blends the splendid red hair of a woman into +the ever accompanying white of the skin beneath. There were little +drizzled things, pert, like bantams, off-breeds which had introduced +themselves into the community. And there was nothing but just a tossing +about among those beautiful creatures upon the pavement there, nothing +but an Oliver Twistish clamor for "more" from those who stood above +them, to whom they were doing more good than they could know. + +On week days the pigeons fly out in foraging parties to the railway +yards and the neighborhood of the huge grain elevators. They can be seen +glancing above the tall buildings, far flying, specks of gleaming light, +along the hollow spaces above the streets as they go and come from their +feeding places. The crowded masses of wagons, street cars, carriages, +horses and hurrying people keep the pigeons from the street where they +are most at home together for six days. But on the seventh, when the +burden of labor is lifted or a brief space from the shoulders of toiling +mankind, the pigeons rally in force upon one of the most busy, prosaic, +care-breeding corners in the great spreading city by the lake. And every +Sunday come, as surely, men and boys to feed the air-travelers and look +at them with the worship all men feel for natural beauty and grace. + +[Illustration: "HE WAS UNCONSCIOUS AS A CHILD"] + +Miss Selwyn had chanced upon this unique function, the pigeons' Sunday +banquet. Here were no appealing graces of architecture and Venetian balm +of atmosphere. The rough pavement on which the yellow corn was scattered +was a contrast to the smooth and perfect floor of the great Piazza. On +one side was the inevitable American drug store, plain, matter-of-fact, +yet giving, by its crimson and purple window globes, the only touch of +pure color in that part of the street. Across the way was a hotel. A +clothing store, with its paraphernalia of advertisement, occupied +another corner. It was Clark and Madison Streets. + +Miss Selwyn saw every detail of this scene at a glance, and then her +eyes were fastened upon one figure. + +Standing among the others was Henry Bryant. His straight, powerful +figure, commanding in presence and pose, seemed to separate him, in a +way, from the men around him. But, like all the onlookers, he bought +corn and scattered the grain on the ground, watching the pigeons as they +clustered around his largess. He was as unconscious as a child, and as +gentle, about his simple pleasure. His face was a little worn and +changed by the suffering of the days of separation from her--Margaret's +eyes were quick to see that. + +That was the man from whom she had separated after a wordy war over +wordy books. That was her lover over there. His whole look, attitude and +occupation appealed to her tenderness. Love rushed tumultuously onward, +a tide of irresistible strength, sweeping away every carefully-built +structure of repulse and every barrier of opinion. Their quarrel was +forgotten. Yet the reserve of a proud nature and of custom kept Miss +Selwyn from crossing over to speak to Bryant. + +She walked home with a springing step. Once the thought came into her +mind that Bryant might go away somewhere at once; that the message she +was hurrying to send him might not reach him, and at the idea she felt +faint and disheartened. She stopped and, for an instant, almost turned +back, but, checking herself with a smile at her own impatience and +trivial forebodings, she held on her homeward way again. + +She could see her lover, and see him as plainly as when he was in +reality before her, all unconscious of her presence, half +absent-mindedly and all tenderly scattering grain for the cooing, +fluttering pigeons at his feet. + +The next morning, Bryant, looking over his mail with little relish--for +much of the interest in living was out of him just then--found a letter +which aroused him most effectually from his mood of listlessness. It +said: + + DEAR: I am "blue-mouldy for want of a batin'." Come to me. + + MARGARET. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ABERCROMBIE'S WOOING + + +None but could smile upon the spinster and be glad of the little tale +she told. Half the world knows of the pigeons so nourished on one of the +most crowded corners in the heart of a great, turbulent city, but none +had thought before of what might accompany this exhibition of the fact +that there is still a regard for beings of the lower and less grasping +life. Very pleasant was the conversation and very understanding were the +comments, but the Colonel, like many a commander of the past, from +Joshua down, noted the swift passing of the hours of day and was +insatiate for more of what might be attained before it was too late. He +called upon the Banker. That gentleman, easy, suave and really a good +specimen of the class which inclines us to save by taking care of our +savings--and only rarely departing with them--was quite equal to the +demand at the paying-teller's window. "I have listened," he said, "to +these accounts, some of adventure, some of fancy, some of love and +persistence, and it has occurred to me that even I might contribute +something to the general fund. Oddly enough, as coming from me, what I +shall tell is a story of love and courage and persistence all combined. +It is not a tale of some far country, but one of our modern life, a tale +of true lovers whose union was opposed but who came together at last in +spite of obstacles. I think we may term it + + ABERCROMBIE'S WOOING + +Mr. Gentil Abercrombie is a fine fellow, quick-witted, and amiable, with +prospects in the world, but he is not, as yet, wealthy. Last spring he +fell in love with Miss Frances Dobson, and the young lady seemed not +entirely oblivious of the fact nor altogether displeased with it. The +affair appeared prosperous to the hopeful Abercrombie until the middle +of June, when the Dobson family moved to their country home at a modest +little watering place not far from the city, leaving the suitor in a +position he did not like. A resolute gentleman, though, is Mr. +Abercrombie, and he followed his star, taking apartments at the +watering-place hotel, coming into town by train daily and returning in +the evening. + +The young lady thus sought had the fortune to be the only daughter of +her somewhat austere parents, Mr. James Dobson and Mrs. Irene Dobson, +each distinctly of the class not to be trifled with by any too aspiring +suitor. Abercrombie was admitted to the Dobson residence, for he has +good social standing--but his reception was not as warm as the weather. +It appeared to each of the lovers early in the season that it was best +to be politic, and that Abercrombie was not, as yet, looked upon by the +father and mother as a person with that superabundance of worldly goods +and of stability of character and wisdom which should appertain to the +husband of the Family Pride. Hence it came that Abercrombie made an +effort whenever an opportunity offered to become what he remarked to +himself as "solid with the old folks." Hence it came, too, that at a +certain trying time there arrived in his immediate vicinity a certain +quantity and quality of disaster. + +It chanced that on one occasion, Abercrombie, seeking, as usual, to +ingratiate himself with the parents, drifted into a discussion +concerning the bringing up of children and expressed himself to the +effect that, in place of the usual inane though amusing fairy stories +and things of that sort, children should in their youth, when the memory +fairly petrifies things, be entertained with pleasant tales about +natural history and in fact about anything likely to aid most in future +equipment for the great struggle in the world. Of natural history he +made a point. Well, one evening, in just what poets call the "gloaming," +Abercrombie, the parents, Frances and young Erastus Dobson were sitting +together upon the front porch, when, suddenly, from some inscrutable +impulse, Erastus broke out with the exclamation: + +"Mr. Abercrombie, tell me a story." + +Here was a situation! It flashed upon Abercrombie, that he had, as +already mentioned, impressed upon the elder people the fact that, in his +opinion, the youthful mind should be loaded with natural history when +tales were imposed upon it. There was no alternative. Here were the +older people listening and expectant. Here was Erastus, vociferous. Here +was his own sweetheart, sitting in the half darkness and wondering if he +were equal to the occasion! + +Abercrombie quivered for a moment trying to collect his senses which +seemed to have been, somehow, "jolted" by Erastus' request, and then +suddenly became so desperate and cold-blooded that he could not +understand himself. + +"Yes, Erastus," he said, affably; "I will tell you a story, most +willingly." Then he continued: + +"This is the story of the Boy and the Bull and the Horned Hen. Once +there was a boy. It has frequently happened that there was a boy, so +that it is hardly worth while referring to such a thing now, but, since +we have mentioned it, we'll let it go. Tum-a-row! This boy lived in the +country and was kind to a Hen. Little did he know that the hen +appreciated and remembered it, but she did! One day this boy started to +cross a meadow in which was a savage bull, and the boy forgot he had on +his red sweater. In the middle of the meadow stood a tree which was +blasted and which looked almost like a cone. It was what a young +kindergarten teacher might describe as a trunk from which the branches +had been riven away in some of Nature's convulsions, probably electric. +Anyhow, the bull started for the boy and the boy started for the tree. +Tum-a-row! The boy reached the tree four and one-third seconds before +the bull reached the same place, and the boy began climbing and was at +least thirty feet from the ground before the bull arrived. It is +needless to say that the boy climbed with much rapidity. The bull +followed rapaciously--yes, that's the word--and began climbing also with +great rapidity behind the boy, and there was a race to what--if the term +may be applied to such a dead trunk of a tree--to the topmast. There the +tree sloped to a point, which the boy, climbing with avidity--that's the +word,--reached easily, under the stress of circumstances. The bull, +climbing swiftly after, attained a height of between ten and fifteen +feet from his intended victim, and then, reaching the slope of +compression, as one may say, of the dead tree, suddenly found himself +without sufficient grasp and slid down, again and again, as he sought to +reach the apex of the cone. The boy, meanwhile, was and properly, too, +in a state of utmost fear, as the bull from time to time seemed almost +successful in his upward attempts. + +"But there is a limit to endeavor. The bull, fatigued at last, slid +downward to the ground, just as the hen, who, happily for the boy, had +noted from the distant barnyard what was going on, came desperately to +the rescue. The struggle which ensued was something doubtless without a +parallel, or anything else in the way of similitude, in the history of +single combats. It was something frightful! The bellowing of the hen, +the hissing and cackling of the bull, the scattering of scales from both +adversaries as they clashed together, cannot be adequately described. +But the end came quickly. There came a moment, when perspiring and +panting, the hen gored the bull with all her might, mind and strength, +and he fell lifeless to the ground. + +"The moral of this story is, be kind to a hen. Tum-a-row!" + +"Why do you say 'Tum-a-row'?" suddenly demanded Erastus. + +"Well, I hardly know, myself," said Abercrombie. "I guess it's a sort of +accompaniment. It came in an old farmer's song I heard when I was a +little boy, in an old song which told about a young man who went 'down +in the medder for to mow,' and who 'mowed around till he did feel a +pizen sarpint bite him on the heel;' and, every little while, through +the song came the word 'Tum-a-row.' That's the reason 'Tum-a-row' comes +in so often in the story. It isn't my fault; it just seems to belong. +Tum-a-row!" + +"Tell me another! Tell me another!" shouted young Erastus, but there +came no sound from the twilight which encompassed the old people, nor +from the gloaming about the sweetheart, though little did it matter. +Abercrombie had passed the caring point! + +"One more will I tell you," he said, speaking in a resonant and rotund +voice, to the wide-mouthed and expectant Erastus. "This is the story of +the Dark Forest, the Charcoal Burners, the Witch and the Boa +Constrictor. + +"Once there was a forest so dark that you cannot conceive of its +darkness. Oh! it was just a forest dark from Darkville! It was fringed +about with a forest which was somewhat lighter, in which things lived, +but nothing lived in the forest itself; it was too black! Among the +people who lived in this lighter fringe of forest were some Charcoal +Burners. You will always find Charcoal Burners connected with a deep +forest story, particularly in the German Medieval Legends. The Charcoal +Burners in those stories usually lived in some glade in the middle of +the wood, but the Charcoal Burners we are telling about lived on the +outside for the reason we have given--but they ought not really to be +called 'burners,' because they did not burn anything. Whenever orders +came for charcoal they simply took their shovels and went down an aisle +into the depth of the inner wood and dug out great hunks of the +blackness, which they brought out and stacked upon wagons, and which +were conveyed to Vienna and Wiesbaden and Oshkosh and all the other +charcoal commercial centers. + +"Now all this has nothing to do with the story. These matters about the +Charcoal Burners I have related only because it chances that from the +Charcoal Burners themselves the real story was gained. We ought to be +grateful to them for what they have told. + +"Four or five miles east of the Charcoal Burners lived a Boa +Constrictor. He was sixty feet long and had a gilt-edged appetite. I +don't believe in using slang, and gilt-edged is slightly slangy, but the +bald fact stands out that he had a gilt-edged appetite. He lived mostly +on wild boars, but, when the supply of wild boars gave out on any +occasion, he lived on most anything that came along. + +"Now, five miles east of the Boa Constrictor lived a Witch, and she was +a witch from Witchville. She was not any common witch, but one whose +slightest anathema would just curl your hair. Talk about brimstone! Why +brimstone would be just ice cream in any comparison you could make +between this witch and other things in the world. She knew her business! +Well, this Witch had three children, two sons and a daughter, nice +little children, in their way. It happened, unfortunately, one +afternoon, that they strayed into the forest; and this afternoon +happened to be the particular afternoon on which the Boa Constrictor had +run out of wild boars. He consumed the kids--I beg your pardon; young as +you are, I beg your pardon--I meant to say that he devoured the three +young children, that he encompassed them after the constrictor manner. + +"By and by, the Witch missed her children and, induced by maternal +instinct, went out looking for them, and so came to the abode of the +Constrictor. They had been on good enough terms and she approached him +affably. + +"'Good morning, Mr. Constrictor,' said she. + +"'Good afternoon, Mrs. Witch,' said the Constrictor. + +"'Have you seen my children?' asked the lady. + +"'I have not', said the Constrictor. + +"The Witch was about to depart when a thought seemed to seize her and +she turned just about half way, assuming what may be designated as a +suddenly reflective attitude; + +"'Are you sure, Mr. Constrictor?' said she. + +"'I am sure,' said he. + +"Only a person with nerves under absolute control could have been +present on that occasion and considered unmoved the changes in the +Witch's face. The accumulative grimness of her countenance became +something startling. She spoke slowly but her voice had that hard, low, +even tone which we read about in novels. + +"'What is the reason that you are so big in the middle?' said she. + +"'I am not big in the middle, your eyes deceive you,' said he. + +"'You are lying, Mr. Constrictor,' said she, 'and I'm going to make you +tell the truth. I am going to make an Incantation over and around and +all about you that will give you some idea of what forces are at work in +the universe.' + +"Then from somewhere about her skirt, she pulled out a broomstick, and +waved it five times, and said; 'Abracadabra, Pentagon' and some other +things, and, of course, the performance had its effect and the +Constrictor had to tell the truth. He simply had to! He admitted the +consumption of the three children. + +"Imagine the demeanor of the Witch when she learned that her three +children had been devoured by the Constrictor! For a little time she was +speechless and white in the face, then, as reason and the control of her +powers returned, the malignant look which came was something that simply +defies description. Her voice, as she spoke to the Constrictor this +time, was shrill and raucous. + +"'I am going to pronounce an Anathema upon you,' she said, 'and I'm +going to do it now. I am going to make you the same at both ends.' + +"A very adroit and clever Constrictor was this, and he said nothing. But +he chuckled to himself: 'If she makes me the same at both ends, I will +have more fun than ever. With a mouth at each end, I can eat twice as +many wild boars and be twice as happy.' He coiled closer to the ground +with a look of affected submission, and the Witch went on with her +Anathema. + +"It was a fine anathema, there was no question about it. Even the +leaves on the trees about first turned brown, then crackled and then +smoked, as she was making her few remarks. She completed the formula and +departed, leaving the Constrictor to become the same at both ends, and +he lay there, still chuckling, waiting for his double-headedness and +double enjoyment in the future. + +"Then came to him a sort of quivery feeling, and he knew that he was +changing. It did not take more than an hour at the utmost, when that +Constrictor suddenly realized that he was the same at both ends, but--he +did not have two heads! He had two tails! There he was, a great Boa +Constrictor, sixty feet long, with a tail at each end. Of course only +one thing could happen to a Boa Constrictor with a tail at each end. He +must starve to death, simply because he could not eat. Day after day +passed, and the Constrictor grew less and less in dimensions, and, +finally, the day came when there was only a little worm, smaller than an +angle-worm. Then the day came when there was no worm at all. + +"And that is the end of the story, because there isn't any more worm!" + +The last sentence of the tale was concluded. Silence prevailed for a +moment or two, and then there was a gasp of delight and approval from +Erastus. + +"That's bully!" he said. "Will you tell me some more, some other time, +Mr. Abercrombie?" + +"Certainly, my boy," said Abercrombie. "It is well that we should become +acquainted with natural history, and in the simple tales I tell you I +shall endeavor at all times to introduce such information as will +increase your store of knowledge. Above all, we must get acquainted with +natural history." + +He paused. The boy had nothing to say. Unfortunately, nobody else had +anything to say. To Abercrombie the silence seemed, in a vague way that +he could not fully comprehend, destructive. There was something the +matter with the atmosphere and he knew it. The gloaming had drifted into +darkness, and he could no longer see either his prospective +father-in-law or mother-in-law or his sweetheart. He knew only that, as +an adviser of parents of the younger male offspring of the two who were +also parents of his one object in life, he had flashed presumptuously in +the pan, that, too, in the dimness of the gathering darkness, when +people are most reflective and that he had accomplished the possibility +irretrievable. + +The silence was broken at last by the voice of Mrs. Dobson. The voice +was thin and didn't seem to really "break" the silence. It seemed to +split it neatly. + +"Are those your ideas, Mr. Abercrombie, as to the sort of knowledge of +natural history which should be conveyed to young children?" + +"Yes, I'd like to know, myself," added Mr. Dobson. + +Not a laugh, not a comment, not a sound came from the corner where sat +Miss Frances Dobson. She was strictly an aside. + +Abercrombie pondered through swift seconds. He was in what, in his own +mind--so much are we addicted to the pernicious habit of thinking in the +vernacular--'in a hole'. But, the man at bay has frequently proved a +hero in a plain North American way. Abercrombie arose to the occasion! + +"It may be," he said, "that in the telling to Erastus of these simple +tales, I have not followed precisely the practices of those generally +engaged in the teaching of youth. It may be that I have not instructed +him in the manner in which I might have done had I allowed a few years +to lapse and my beard to grow longer and had shaved my upper lip. It may +be that in the tales I have told Erastus there are certain +discrepancies, synchronisms, and anachronisms. My pictures may have +possessed a shade too much of the impressionist character. But what of +it? What I wanted to do was to give Erastus a general idea of Black +Forests, Witches, and Boa Constrictors." + +Silence reigned again, and reigned very thoroughly for some time. Then +up rose the modern young woman. + +No one in the room could see any one else, but all could hear. What the +parents heard was the sound of light footsteps along the porch and then, +after a pause; + +"You're a ridiculous gentleman,--Don't pull me so!" + +What they heard also was a thoughtful and generally commendatory remark +from Erastus: + +"Say, old man, you're all right. You're the stuff!" + +They heard no more at the time. The next morning was a fine +morning--there have been lots of them--and, as breakfast was about +ending, there took place a conversation between her parents and Miss +Dobson--a conversation inaugurated by them but ended, decidedly, by +her. + +Given a young woman, the only one in the family and possessed of +character, she can usually make her parents "know their place," though +doing all this, of course, with kindness and consideration. Miss Dobson +and Abercrombie are formally engaged. The fortunate but alarmed young +man had not realized what would happen when the reinforcements came up. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +EVAN CUMMINGS' COURTSHIP + + +There was frivolous talk and disputation and some serious reasoning, as +the necessary sequence of what had been told. There was discussion as to +what excuse there had been for the demeanor of Mr. Abercrombie, and even +some quiet suggestion to the Banker that, very much to his credit, he +could, himself, imagine things, upon occasions such as this, and that, +possibly, he might have risen somewhat to the emergency, but the +chaffing was of the listless sort. The sun was not visible save from the +rear end of the rear car of the train, but its rays deflected, slanted, +yellow-red, along the sides of the pass calling the attention of all to +the fact that it was almost supper-time. More hanging together in a +Wayside Tales companionship? Hardly! They had appetites and they +dissolved as dissolve the vapors, or the friends made by letters of +introduction, or snow on the top of a distillery, or your dreams, or +Mary when you need her, or anything else. Similes are the cheapest +thing on the market! The sum of it was that an afternoon had been killed +without undue atrocity and now all scattered and prepared themselves and +went in to supper. They enjoyed themselves together and then the ladies +drifted back to the talking habitat, while the men, or at least a number +of them, found the smoking compartments, either the big one of the +Cassowary or one of those in other coaches. + +There are all kinds of traveling men. This is not generally understood, +but it is a fact. The impression has, somehow, obtained that a traveling +man or "Drummer," or whatever we should call Dickens' "Bagman" in +the western Hemisphere, is a person who is careless of the +conventionalities, who relies upon a certain hardihood in thrusting +himself anywhere into the place of immediate consequence or convenience. +Never was a greater mistake in popular opinion. There are blatant +commercial travelers, of course. There will be fools in any part of the +world's work. It is a matter of fact, though, that the man whose +business it is to influence mentally other men and women must, +necessarily, have tact and understanding and that he must be often more +quick of conception and more readily responsive to the proper demand of +his fellow-creatures than one less extremely educated in certain ways of +the vagrant world. + +The man called upon was one of the greater type. He laughingly accepted +the situation: + +"Yes," he said, "I'll tell you a story, but it is so foolish that I can +hardly expect you to believe it. It is merely the story of one man I +knew and of how he got his wife. He did not get her in quite the +ordinary way. I'll tell you all I know about him, and I've known him +almost from boyhood. I'll tell you everything as it was." + + EVAN CUMMINGS' COURTSHIP + +I think Evan Cummings had the most remarkable personality of any +traveling man I ever met, a personality which indicated itself +especially in the closing incident of his love affair. He was a +good-looking fellow, of Scotch descent, with all the tenacity of purpose +of his race. He was a good man to meet upon the train. When we were +gathered in the smoking compartment Evan was as full of spirits as the +rest, but I noticed that, while taking an active part in the +conversation, he never told any of the somewhat risque stories that the +air of the smoking compartment too often breeds. Instead, he would tell +uncanny tales of Scotland in the old days, tales of wizards and +warlocks, and of the strange things to be seen at night on ancient +battle-fields, and we always listened to him with interest. He was +mightily fixed in his views and many a good-natured dispute we had with +him over this or that. Eh, but he was stubborn! + +Evan was a good man of business, though, and had a host of friends. +Among these was the conductor of a train on which he often traveled and +the friendship developed into such a degree of intimacy that one day the +conductor, Luke Johnson, invited him out to dinner with him. Evan, +having no particular business on hand that evening, accepted the +invitation. + +Johnson's house was in the suburbs, decidedly. It was on the very picket +line of the army of houses of the ever-marching city, out on the prairie +at least a couple of blocks distant from any other house. A plank +sidewalk extended to it from the more settled district near and, with +its barns and sheds and vine-covered front, it did not have a lonesome +look. Inside Evan found the house quite as prepossessing as its +exterior and he found something else there more prepossessing still. + +Johnson's family consisted of himself, his wife, his child, little +Gabriel, about four years old, and his sister-in-law, a Miss Salome +Hinman. Evan found Mrs. Johnson a pleasant sort of a woman and found in +Miss Hinman his undeniable affinity. Stolid as he usually was in the +presence of femininity, he felt, in the very marrow of his bones, that +he was a lost man. That he succumbed so quickly was not altogether to be +wondered at. Miss Hinman was pretty, was very slender--what a +school-girl writer would call willowy or lissom or, possibly, +svelte--and was wildly devoted to her little nephew, of whom she had the +chief care. + +Well, Evan didn't waste any time. He contrived it so that he was in the +city often and, as often, was at Johnson's house, making vigorous love +to Miss Salome. Finally, he accepted a good city position with his firm +and abandoned the road, just for the sake of being near his sweetheart, +though he liked the road better. All would have gone well now, but for +the young lady. He knew she cared for him, for she had admitted it, but +she was a bit of a coquette and couldn't resist the temptation of +playing a fish so firmly hooked. Urge as Evan might, he could not +persuade her to fix a date for their marriage. She would not absolutely +deny him, but she was elusive. He became desperate. Something must be +done. It was. + +One day just as Evan, brooding as he walked, neared the home of his +sweetheart to renew his useless pleading, he noticed little Gabriel +playing in the yard with a toy balloon the string of which was tied to a +button-hole of his jacket and which tugged strenuously away at him. Evan +sat down upon the horse-block in front of the house, watching the boy +dreamily, and trying to devise a plan to bring Miss Salome to terms, +when, all at once, his planning ceased as suddenly as the stopping of a +clock. The boy and the balloon had given him an awful inspiration! He +returned to town. + +That evening Evan Cummings bought a toy balloon, some bird-shot and one +of the tiniest of little baskets. In his room at the hotel he attached +the string of the balloon to the handle of the basket. Then, as the +balloon with its burden rose toward the ceiling, he dropped shot after +shot into the little receptacle until the balloon could no longer raise +it. Taking the little basket of shot to the drug store, he had the +basket and shot carefully weighed. He now knew the exact lifting power +of a toy balloon--it was just five ounces. He had seen Gabriel weighed +and knew that he tipped the scale at forty-two pounds. The calculation +was easy; sixteen ounces in a pound; sixteen multiplied by forty-two +makes six hundred and seventy-two. Gabriel, therefore, weighed 672 +ounces: a single toy balloon would lift not quite five ounces; five goes +into six hundred and seventy-two, one hundred and thirty-four times; one +hundred and thirty-five toy balloons would lift little Gabriel. The next +day Evan went to a harness shop and had a stout leather harness made +which would just about fit Gabriel, passing round his small body under +the arms and over his shoulders, from each of which two broad straps +extended upward and met in a strong iron ring. Then he went out and +invested in two hundred and fifty toy balloons--thus adding over an +hundred for requirements and contingencies. He bought, also, a stout +piece of clothesline, fifty feet long, and a thick cord two hundred feet +long, which would, if required, sustain the weight of a man. The next +afternoon he attached the balloons to the clothesline, not all in a +bunch, but at intervals, that in the event of an accident to one, +another would not be affected. At the lower end of the clothesline was a +strong steel snap. + +At about three o'clock in the afternoon, when he knew Mrs. Johnson was +to be absent in town, Evan hired a covered express-wagon, in which he +imprisoned his balloons and was driven near the Johnson's place. A block +or two away from there, he dismissed the driver and wagon and went on +alone, the balloons tugging at him fiercely as he walked. He saw little +Gabriel playing in the yard, as usual, and called to him. The youth came +running out and shouted in childish glee when he saw the mountain of red +balloons. + +"Would you like to take a ride, Gabriel?" asked Evan kindly. + +"Yep, Yep!" cried Gabriel. "Gimme a ride." + +Evan carefully and securely adjusted the harness upon the youngster and +then snapped the contrivance at the end of the clothesline into the ring +above the boy's head. He tied one end of his two hundred feet of cord +firmly to the same ring. Holding on to the cord, he eased up gently and +had the satisfaction of seeing Gabriel lifted from his feet. + +At the height of thirty feet little Gabriel emitted a sudden bawl such +as a four year-old probably never gave before; at fifty feet his screams +were something startling and when, at last, he hung dangling two hundred +feet above, the string of balloons rising fifty feet higher still, the +volume and loudness of his shrieking seemed scarce diminished by the +distance. He swung and swayed far away up there a wonderful kicking +object, the string of balloons uplifting above him like a pillar of +fire, the whole forming a wonderful vision against the sky. Evan calmly +tied the end of the cord to the hitching staple in the horse-block, then +sat down upon the block and drew out and opened his pocket knife. + +The front door of the house suddenly flew open and a hysterical young +woman reached Evan's side in the fraction of an instant. She looked +upwards and shrieked out: + +"Oh! Oh! What are you doing with little Gabriel! He'll be killed! Oh! +he'll be killed!" + +"No he won't," answered Evan, quietly, "I can pull him down at any time. +He'll stay where he is--that is unless I cut this cord," he added +reflectively, as he held the blade of his knife against it. "Salome, +will you marry me and fix the date for the ceremony now? If you won't +promise, I'll cut the cord!" + +"Oh, you brute! Oh, you murderer! I'll never-- Oh--" + +"I tell you he's all right," explained Evan. "Promise when we'll be +married, and I'll pull him down." + +The girl but shrieked the louder and, sinking down, clung pleadingly to +his knees. + +"Save him!" she cried. "He'll be killed! Oh, poor little Gabriel!" + +"I tell you he won't be killed! Little Gabriel has only gone aloft, to +be nearer his namesake. He's almost up to where 'the cherubim and +seraphim continually do sing.' Don't you hear him singing himself, +already? Will you fix the date or shall I cut the cord?" + +The girl was getting calmer, though quivering all over. She only sobbed +now; "He'll be killed! He'll be killed! Oh my poor little Gabriel!" + +"I tell you he will not," reiterated Evan. "I don't believe he will be +killed even when I cut the string. He will alight gently somewhere, as +the gas in the balloons gradually exudes, and somebody will take care of +him. It may not be in this county, but he will alight. When will you +marry me?" + +The young woman did not answer. + +"Salome," said Evan, now pleadingly. "You know that you love me and that +I love you. Why not stop all this dalliance and coquetting? you know you +are going to be my wife. Will you not make it all definite?" + +Salome looked up into her lover's eyes, then bowed her head. Finally she +looked up again and sobbed out: + +"Y-e-s, only pull down little Gabriel." + +"When shall the wedding be? Will the twentieth of next month do?" + +"Y-e-s." + +Evan closed his pocket knife. Then taking hold of the cord he began +pulling little Gabriel down. As that youth, still loudly bellowing, +reached the ground, Salome caught him up and darted into the house with +him. Evan paid slight attention to people who came running to see what +the red thing aloft had been. He said only that he had been trying an +experiment. Then he gathered up the balloons and carried them into the +woodshed, where they rose in a mass to the roof and stayed there. Then +he went into the house and had a talk with the indignant Salome. It was +an exciting session, but it ended peaceably. + +Well, she married him, as she had promised, for honesty was among her +virtues. She looks upon her husband as a desperate character and, so, is +in love with him, of course. + +I'm not surprised at the whole business. It was Evan all over. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE SWISS FAMILY ROBERTSON + + +The fact as was learned early in the morning, that there must elapse one +more day before relief came, was, it must be feared, absolutely a relief +to Colonel Livingstone. When Stafford told him the situation he beamed. +He was certainly at his best. He called upon the Man From Nowhere. + +The title of The Man From Nowhere had been bestowed upon a quiet and +dignified gentleman who but smiled and listened all the time, but had +said very little. During the first stress of the imprisonment, he had +been one of the most energetic and helpful among those of the passengers +who had shown the quality of facing a situation. He had exerted himself +to some purpose from the beginning and had assisted in making more or +less comfortable those who did not seem capable of taking care of +themselves. He had been given the title of "The Man From Nowhere," +because he had declared that he really had no home but was a wanderer +for pleasure, with no fixed place of abode. He was a man of about sixty +years of age, grey-mustached and affable. Now, as he came forward, with +an apparent degree of awakened interest in what was going on, he was +received with applause. It was the Colonel, as usual, who expressed +himself: + +"Glad to see you aroused, sir. Are you, too, going to favor us with a +story?" + +The Man From Nowhere laughed: "It's hardly a story," he said, "but, in +listening to the brief discussion as to the degree in which we are +appreciated in this world, I was involuntarily reminded of the bitter +experience of a young friend or rather of five young friends of mine. +They were not appreciated, and took steps accordingly. What they did was +merely to segregate themselves. You will readily perceive that by +segregating yourself you may avoid all the annoyance of +non-appreciation. That the experiment did not, in this instance, result +at once in a permanent remedy for all oppressive circumstances was, I +think, due, not to any lack of proper conception in the minds of my +young friends, but rather to their inexperience in certain matters of +detail. In some of its aspects it was a sad affair, but I will relate +the whole thing to you just as it was told me by the principal actor. It +is but the simple story of + + THE SWISS FAMILY ROBERTSON + +When I look back across the years--I am nearly thirteen now--the vision +which arises of trying adventure with my sister and three brothers seems +like what I have seen somewhere alluded to as the baseless fabric of a +dream, or, if not that, at least some freak of the waking imagination. +Yet certain it is that the five of us, John, Mary, Francis, Herbert and +Elwyn Robertson, aged respectively eleven, nine, eight and six +years--Herbert and Elwyn being twins--had such strange experiences in a +strange land as can never be forgotten by any of us. Hard indeed to +undergo were some of our vicissitudes, and always thankful am I, when +the memory of that time returns, that my greater age and possibly +greater force of character enabled me to become guide and mentor when +certainly a counselor was needed. + +Strangely enough, all our adventures were the indirect result of an +earnest perusal of a most fascinating volume entitled The Swiss Family +Robinson, in which was related the story of a family named Robinson, +cast away upon a lone island in the Pacific Ocean. The family was a +remarkable one, and the character of the father I admired especially. +Not only was he a man of extended general information, but one who +regarded thoughtfully the circumstance that almost any condition may be +improved by the diligent, and who was truly grateful for something in +every chapter of the book. The mother and children each displayed traits +almost as admirable. The island, too, was as remarkable as the family, +since, though it was but a small place, the castaways were fortunate +enough to discover almost every useful plant, bird and beast known to +the torrid, temperate or frigid zones. Taken altogether, the tale was +such as to arouse a spirit of something nearly akin to envy in the minds +of all of us save the twins, who were, of course, too young to +understand. It was no wonder, since our great-great-grandfather on our +mother's side was said to have come from Switzerland, that the three +oldest of us called ourselves the Swiss Family Robertson and imagined +many things. There came a time when the fancy became a grave reality, +even to the twins. + +It is with no little feeling and hesitation that I approach any +allusion to the causes which led to the practical expatriation of five +people--in the prime of youth, it is true, but inexperienced--and their +subjection to a manner of existence such as they had never imagined +could be real. Even now the matter so affects me that I must be pardoned +by the reader for not relating the unpleasant details. Suffice it to say +that occasions arose when the views of our parents unhappily failed to +coincide with those of Mary, Francis and myself, and that our conduct +was held, by those who had the power, to merit corporal punishment, a +punishment which, it has always seemed to me, was inflicted with far +more vehemence than any possible occasion could demand. Our spirits +revolted at what occurred, and the three of us, who, as explained, had +just finished reading The Swiss Family Robinson, held inflamed but +deliberate counsel together and determined resolutely upon a course +which should give us liberty of conscience and of action. I admit +frankly that, being of a self-respecting disposition, and it may be to +an extent a natural leader, I was foremost in these councils and mapped +out the general plan of action. Increasing years have given me more +philosophy and taken from my impulsiveness, but at that time I did not +hesitate. In short, under my inspiration we resolved to seek a more +congenial clime, where, if we did not luxuriate in all the so-called +advantages of a super-refined civilization, we should at least have the +more quiet and assured happiness which obtains where Nature is primeval. +Our resolution became fixed. That Herbert and Elwyn, the twins, became +of the emigrating party was but an incident, they having discovered our +plans for departure and insisting upon accompanying us. Their wish was +reluctantly granted lest the clamor they would inevitably raise in the +event of a refusal should reveal our plans. + + * * * * * + +Not only were we determined upon the new life, but we resolved to +isolate ourselves so completely from the unpleasant recent past as even +to change our names, it being decided that each should select a new one +for himself or herself. As for me, having lately read a story of the +Norsemen, I selected the name of Wolfgang; Mary chose that of Abyssinia, +and Francis, for what reason I cannot imagine, adopted that of Chickum. +The naming of Herbert and Elwyn was left to Abyssinia, who, after +looking over a newspaper, called one Krag and the other Joergensen. Then +began in earnest our preparations for departure. + +It was, of course, necessary, as I endeavored to impress upon my +fellows--if Abyssinia may be included in such a term--to observe the +utmost secrecy and discretion in all our movements. This injunction was +observed faithfully by all save Krag and Joergensen, whose course was +frequently such as might, I feared, attract the attention of our +parents. Fortunately they appeared all unknowing of our designs. + + * * * * * + +The first thing to be accomplished was the getting together and bestowal +in a safe place of such stores as we could carry away and as would be +most serviceable to us in an uninhabited and possibly barren region. In +this difficult task Abyssinia, Chickum and I shared about equally. The +place of concealment finally decided upon was a small shed which had +formerly been a henhouse, and which stood against a board fence on the +eastern side of the kitchen garden. Here, beneath a heap of straw, we +concealed our accumulations. I pondered deeply over what the nature of +our stores should be, and I trust I may say, with a pride not +altogether unbecoming, that my selections were justified by the result. +Slowly but surely the material accumulated until there came a time when +we felt that we were fairly equipped for our departure. It was just +after the beginning of July, and the weather was sultry, but, with an +eye for the future, Abyssinia secured from the extra household supplies +four quilts, five large sheets and six jars of raspberry and strawberry +jam. She contributed also a bag of salt, pepper, some old knives and +forks, half a dozen tin plates and as many tin cups, a breadpan, a +frying-pan with a broken handle, and two tin pails. I added a light but +excellent ax, several boxes of matches, a great ball of stout cord, an +enormous slab of dried beef, two boxes of crackers, a box of candles, +some large potatoes, an old carving-knife, some fishhooks, a steel trap, +and at least half a barrel of flour in bags not too large to be carried +by Chickum or me. Chickum brought two jars of butter, another ax, and +his bow and arrow. Of course we had our pocket-knives, and Abyssinia had +needles and strong thread. The hour came when we only awaited an +auspicious occasion for departure. + +It had become apparent that not a third of our stores could be removed +in a single journey, and, after considering the matter most +thoughtfully, I resolved that the only wise course was to determine upon +the site for our new home, complete it, and to it carry our goods from +time to time. Upon Chickum and me must necessarily fall the burden of +this initial labor, and we set about it at once. Our homestead sloped +from the roadway to the north and was bounded in that direction by a +grassy expanse through which flowed a small creek, crossed by a plank. +The creek separated this green area from a wild and comparatively +deserted region known as the Wooded Pasture. Some hundreds of yards +distant from the creek rose an extremely wide and dense growth of +willows, and in the midst of this miniature forest, as we had at one +time discovered, was a small open space, dry and bare of growth. Here, +after new exploration in company with Chickum, I decided should be +established our tranquil home. The site was not discernible from the +home of our parents, nor indeed from any part of the place we were +leaving except from an elevated point in a meadow to the west, and even +from this station the view was indistinct. + +We bided our time impatiently now; but we did not have long to wait. A +day came when our parents were away upon a visit, the hired girl was +occupied in-doors, and the hired man busy in the cornfield where the +dense growth of the valued cereal prevented him from seeing us or being +seen. Quietly Chickum and I departed, burdened with the quilts, sheets, +our axes, and the ball of twine. Our journey to the willows was +uneventful and our labors there were unmolested. + + * * * * * + +The plan of our shelter had already been designed by me, and we lost no +time in trivial debating over details, Chickum submitting without +question to each suggestion of the stronger mind. Under my direction we +cut down eight small willows as straight as we could find, and cut from +each a length of nearly six feet, four of which we sharpened at one end. +These, one of us standing upon a dead uprooted stump which we rolled +about, we drove into the earth at distances of six feet apart, the +stakes, rising some five feet, forming the four corners of a square. The +remaining four poles we tied firmly so that they extended from the top +of one stake to another, and upon the frame so constructed we stretched +one of the sheets, cutting holes close to the hems and through them +tying the sheet to the cross-pieces. Our dwelling was now roofed. The +four remaining sheets, similarly tied, made the four sides of the +structure, one being left partly unattached so that it might be lifted, +thus serving for a door. Upon the grassy floor of the house one of the +quilts was spread, and there was our Tented Home! Chickum was wild with +delight and capered about hilariously, but I reminded him that the time +for an exhibition of such exuberance of spirit had not arrived. Much yet +remained to be accomplished. Days passed before all our stores were, +with exercise of the greatest caution, safely bestowed within the tent. + +It was six o'clock one pleasant evening, when we had just finished +dinner, that our parents again absented themselves to make a call upon a +neighbor. Our time had come. Quietly all of us, including Abyssinia and +the twins, slipped down through the kitchen garden, across the creek, +across a part of the Wooded Pasture and into the Willow Grove. There was +what I may call a certain tremulousness, but no faltering. We reached +our place of refuge. "Welcome to this sylvan grove!" shouted +Chickum--quoting, I firmly believe, something he had read in a story, +for Chickum's ordinary mode of expression was not such as I could in +many respects desire--and all entered the tent and made themselves at +home. Here were peace and happiness at last! We chatted and planned +until darkness fell, and then, digging a hole with my knife into a +potato, I inserted one of the candles we had brought and found the place +illuminated finely. But we did not remain long awake. It had been a +season of labor and excitement, and a sense of drowsiness soon overcame +us all. + + * * * * * + +It was nearly midnight when I was aroused by an exclamation from +Abyssinia and the sobbing of the twins. "What is it?" whispered +Abyssinia, and as she spoke there came a strange, gulping cry from a +marshy strip beside the creek, and then, nearer us, one more musical but +quite as mournful. The creatures of the night were calling. From my +wider experience I recognized their harmlessness; I knew the voices of +the bullfrog and the whippoorwill, but with the others it was different. +Though my rest had been disturbed, I could not but explain all +graciously, and soon the three were sleeping again, though fitfully. As +for Chickum, he had not awakened. When we awoke, morning had come and +the birds were chirping all about us. We ate heartily of jam and +crackers, and felt the blood coursing in our respective veins as it had +never done before. How glorious the sense of freedom! + +How unstable, too, are sometimes the happiest of conditions! Little did +I imagine that bright morning as I noted idly the performance of a +red-hooded woodpecker, _Melanerpes erythrocephalus_, who was eating a +long white grub in sections, little, I reiterate, did I imagine that +before nightfall all our hopeful plans would be disarranged, and that, +like some weakling tribe compelled ever to flee before an encroaching +power, we must decide, in self-protection, to risk all the dangers of a +wilder home. + +It was noon when, looking to the southwest, I perceived far in the +distance our hired man working about a stump on the elevated spot in the +meadow from which could be obtained the only glimpse of our white home +amid the greenery. I have not, I hope, one of those minds ever open to +suspicion, but I may say that it is one somewhat more than ordinarily +keen in the formation of deductions. Why was the hired man there, +chopping about a huge stump which he could not possibly remove unaided? +Were we discovered? Could the man have been placed there to exercise a +distant surveillance over us? The idea grew upon me, and an apprehension +I could scarce explain--an apprehension shared by Abyssinia and Chickum, +with whom I at once consulted. Under the circumstances, with me to think +was but to act. "Come," I said to Chickum, "there is but one course to +pursue. We must face the issue as courageously as we can. Abyssinia and +the twins will remain here while you and I must venture farther in +search of a place where, no matter what may surround us, our isolation +will be complete." To this even the sometimes thoughtless Chickum +assented promptly. "I am ready, brother," was his answer. "Let us start +at once." + +Little preparation was required. We provided ourselves with crackers and +dried beef and set forth immediately, I carrying one of the axes and +Chickum arming himself with the carving knife. + +The country for quite a distance, as we found, was partly bare, though +there were occasional small oaks and tangles of hazel and blackberry +bushes. As we advanced, though, the trees became taller and grew more +closely together, and finally, as we ascended a gradually sloping ridge, +we found ourselves in what must have been almost the forest primeval. We +knew not what we should discover. The shadows were deep, and the wind +made a constant sighing overhead. Descending the ridge upon the other +side, and pursuing our course far to the northwest, we emerged at last +upon a small open glade through which tumbled a noisy creek and near the +centre of which grew a few small elms, four of them, as I noted, forming +the angles of a square. We advanced and looked about us. From the glade +there was an opening in but one direction, to the northeast, through +which could be seen far away part of a hillside field. My heart beat +fast. I recognized the advantages of the site at a single glance. +"Here," I said, "shall be our home!" + +Chickum assented gladly and we took up our long homeward march, reaching +the tent in time for the evening meal. We were informed by Abyssinia +that the day had been uneventful save that Krag had stooped too closely +in examination of a bumblebee upon a clover blossom. One of his eyes was +closed, but he appeared in his usual spirits. I have ever admired the +wonderful recuperative powers of youth. Abyssinia told us, also, that +the twins had devoured one entire pot of our limited supply of jam. + + * * * * * + +For two days Chickum and I labored in the distant forest upon the +erection of our new and more substantial home. Sheets would no longer +suffice for roof and walls. We cut strong cross-poles and tied them from +tree to tree, and, finding great heaps of hemlock bark cut for the +tanneries in a small abandoned clearing some distance from our glade, we +brought all that we required of the great slabs and, leaning them +against our cross-poles, made sides to the dwelling which promised to be +wind and rain proof. The roof was constructed of the same material. We +now had a home solid and roomy and offering pleasant contrast to the +frail tent amid the willows. Laboriously our stores were carried in +repeated journeys over the long route, and three days later all of our +little company were contentedly at home in Hemlock Castle, a name +suggested by Abyssinia, who declared that, like the people on the +Pacific island, we should certainly have names for the objects and +localities about us. The open space in the forest was christened Haven +Glade, the creek received the title of Skelter Walter, and the deep, +wooded land about us was known as Darkland. + +We were now most happily established. Our only possible anxiety, and +that as yet a light one, related to our food supply, which was gradually +diminishing. But we had plenty of flour, and Abyssinia now began making +bread. + +Thoughtful and far-seeing as I had proved myself in the earlier +preparations for our flight, I had forgotten one thing. I shall never +cease to reproach myself with not having requested Abyssinia, while we +were still under the dominion of our parents, to ingratiate herself with +the hired girl and acquire at least some rudimentary idea of the art of +breadmaking. As it now appeared, she was, though hopeful, absolutely +unacquainted with the manner of preparation of this so generally popular +article of food. We elders held a council on the subject and each +expressed an idea. Abyssinia thought that to merely mix some of the +flour with water and then put the dough in the frying-pan was all that +was required for bread. Chickum asserted that he had seen the hired girl +mix a little salt in the dough. I, personally, was confident that butter +was added. It was resolved to experiment on a small scale, and +Abyssinia took up her household duties, I must admit, with bravery. + +Some of the flour was mixed with water and salt and a little butter and +put into the hot frying-pan. It soon browned upon one side and was then +turned over with some difficulty because of its extraordinary +adhesiveness. When finally extracted it resembled nothing I had ever +seen before, but was certainly baked. It was buttered and we all ate. +The food was tenacious in quality and its flavor proved exceedingly +novel to us. Chickum, later, complained of pain. But we had no other +bread, and after I had reasoned calmly with all upon the merit of +resignation, we accepted the situation daily. What a wonderful organ is +the human stomach! + +I am not exaggerating when I relate that the days now passed with +blitheness. To our food was added an almost unlimited supply of wild +gooseberries and blackberries, and the mandrake apples were ripening. +There were deep pools in Skelter Water, and there, with the hooks my +foresight had provided, we caught many of the fish known as the common +bull-head, which we wrapped in clay and cast into the open fire. When +the clay appeared well hardened, we drew it from the fire, cracked it +open, and therein found the fish, cooked to a turn, and even a delicacy +when eaten with butter and pepper and salt. How inevitably does +intelligence, when in stress, arise to the demands of circumstance! + +One day Abyssinia came running in, jubilantly crying: "Bees! Bees! I've +found a hive of wild bees! Let us tame them, as the people did on the +island, and so have all the honey we can eat!" + +This assuredly was glorious news, and we all accompanied Abyssinia to +the scene of her discovery. There were the bees and their home. +Suspended from the swaying end of a beech bough, hanging so low that it +was only four or five feet from the ground, appeared a great oval object +which looked as made of grayish paper. There were orifices in the bottom +about which the insects were humming in great numbers. They seemed +somewhat longer than domesticated bees, and had yellowish rings around +their bodies, the difference in appearance from the ordinary +honey-gatherer being, I assumed, due to their environment and different +mode of life. I at once resolved to secure the hive and bring it to +Haven Glade, where it would afford a most desirable addition to our +daily fare. I determined that the only way to accomplish this was to +come at night when the bees were at rest, cut off the limb above the +hive, and so carry it to our home. This was easily accomplished. The end +of the limb where it had been cut away was inserted in a hole made +through the bark of our rear wall, and there, on the outside, hung the +hive for the honey-making. + +Some days passed and the bees appeared to be working industriously, no +one going very near the suspended hive lest they be disturbed. It +chanced, however, that we had one morning an exceedingly early +breakfast, and Chickum, who always had a taste for sweets, suggested +that, as the bees were not yet astir, he go out, cut a hole in the side +of the hive and secure a lump of comb for our delectation. Impelled by +curiosity, I followed, observing Chickum's operations from a distance. +Chickum, using a pocket knife, cut around a piece about six inches +square from the side of the queer hive, then removed to look within for +the honey. Never shall I forget what then occurred immediately. How +remarkable are some of the traits of the insect world! From the opening +that Chickum had made there burst, fairly in his face, a whirling, +venomously buzzing cloud of the great bees. He leaped backward and fled +along the creek. Very fleet of foot has Chickum always been, and I have +never felt it humiliating to be defeated by him in our friendly races, +but never before had I seen accomplished, even by him, such an amazing +burst of speed. His career, so far as I may infer from pictures I have +seen, resembled that of the antelope of the arid wastes, but the bees +kept pace with him. With each leap Chickum gave vent to the remarkable +cry of "Hep! Hep!" At first I thought him shouting instinctively for +help, but it was not that; it was, I have since concluded, but a +spasmodic exclamation, the result of his alarm and pain and of his +violent physical exertion. I followed, first calling to Abyssinia to +bring the twins from the house, for I knew the flight must be a brief +one. Suddenly, Chickum, in his desperation, plunged into one of the +pools of the creek and sank down until only his nose was visible. That +organ, as I could see, received at once most violent attention from the +hovering pursuers, but by splashing water Chickum finally drove the bees +away and they returned scatteringly to their desecrated home. When +Chickum emerged from the creek his appearance was such that had I not +been witness to the transformation I could scarcely have identified him. +Each eye was closed so that, as he walked, he was compelled to hold the +lids of one apart with thumb and finger, and his nose, but for its hue, +resembled some monster puff-ball of the fields. + +That day our forest home was temporarily abandoned, and when night came +I removed the hive with the utmost care a long distance into the forest. +Days later I found it abandoned and, examining it, found breeding cells, +but not a trace of honey. I recognized at once and, as is always my way, +admitted to myself that I had erred. The hive was not that of the wild +honey bee, _Apis mellifica_, but of the aggressive tree wasp, _Vespidae_. +I could not understand why I had been so mistaken. I had been most +carefully instructed in natural history, and Miss Clitherose, my teacher +for several terms, had been kind enough to speak of my remarkable +aptitude in that direction. I had acquired not only the common but many +of the Latin names of the soulless creatures, and, indeed, rather +preferred the Latin. I well remember the day when I puzzled even Miss +Clitherose, who prided herself somewhat on her acquirements. I asked her +to give me the old Latin names for turkey and potato and she failed in +the attempt. Little did she comprehend how I had reasoned that as there +had been no turkeys nor potatoes in the Old World there could have been +no Latin names for them. But I digress. + +[Illustration: "A DOZEN OR MORE NESTS WERE FOUND"] + +Time passed and all went well until one afternoon, looking through the +one small opening to the glade which gave a view of the distant hillside +field, I saw distinctly the form of a man. He was chopping, and +something about the figure and its movements reminded me irresistibly of +our hired man, Eben Westbrook. What could it mean? + +Happy am I to turn to a subject more exhilarating--to a novel incident +in our forest life. One day Chickum and the twins went berrying in the +direction of our former home, venturing--as we rarely did--even as far +as the wooded lot. They were in the midst of the hazel and blackberry +bushes when there was a sudden cackle and flutter in the undergrowth, +and a cry from Joergensen which brought Chickum hurriedly to the scene. +What he saw caused the impetuous youth to shout with joy. There, beneath +a bush, was the nest of a hen, _Gallina Americana_, and in it were no +less than seven eggs. Berrying was suspended promptly, and all the eggs +save one were transferred to the pail, and then began a wild search for +more. It was well rewarded. A dozen or more nests were found, the spoil +of which was added to that already secured. It was a great discovery. + +A prouder trio than entered Hemlock Castle that evening, bringing their +burden of eggs, could not be conceived by any sort of person, nor could +any imagine a more enthusiastic reception than was accorded them. Not +only were we now relieved from immediate danger of a food famine, but +the variation in diet was good for all of us. There was a most riotous +consumption of eggs for days, until a startling tendency toward +biliousness, exhibited by little Krag, induced me to counsel greater +moderation. So many eggs, coupled with Abyssinia's bread, were +necessarily trying to the system. It was now that Chickum developed a +great idea. He proposed to capture a number of the fowls, bring them to +Haven Glade, and there establish a hennery. + +The proposition was received with general approbation, and next day the +construction of the hennery was begun. It was not a difficult task +which faced us. Since the fowls must have gravel and water, it was +decided that the hennery should extend a little into the creek, and +close beside its sloping bank the structure was erected. There but +remained the capture of the fowls, and Chickum was riotous over the +prospect. He announced his ability to catch a dozen chickens in a single +day, and with the assistance of Krag and Joergensen he made good his +boast, the three running down into the bushes and bringing home just the +number of hens he had promised. + +Our life continued in its placid way until one night, when a tremendous +commotion in the chicken-house caused both Chickum and me to rush out to +the rescue. Chickum had seized the carving-knife as usual, and I a handy +bludgeon. As we neared the place some dark-colored animal clambered +hurriedly up the side of the enclosure, and as its head appeared through +a hole in the roof I dealt it a heavy blow and it fell stunned. Chickum +descended through an opening in the roof and the animal was put out of +its misery. It resembled a miniature bear, save that its color was +grayish and that it possessed a long and remarkably ringed tail. I at +once recognized the common raccoon, _Procyon lotor_, and made an +address to the others upon its many curious traits and habits of life. +One of the hens was found killed. A day or two later there entered from +the water side an enemy which we saw on two or three occasions but could +not destroy nor capture. It proved to be the fur-producing animal known +as a mink, _Putorius vison_. Within a week we had not a single fowl +alive. All had fallen before the rapacity of this bloodthirsty creature. +Hunger stared us in the face! + +How nearly am I approaching now to the end of this narrative of trial +and adventure! How vividly recall themselves to me the scenes of one +fateful afternoon! There had not been a storm since before our occupancy +of Hemlock Castle, and almost a drought prevailed throughout the +country. But a change was near at hand. There came an afternoon, +airless, close and heavy until near evening. Then white clouds appeared +in the west, growing rapidly into woolly mountains. Soon these assumed a +darker hue, and a great wind arose before which the sturdiest trees were +bent, while an awful roar resounded through the forest. A darkness came +upon everything, and we huddled in the shelter of Hemlock Castle, even +Chickum alarmed, Abyssinia crying, and the twins in an agony of terror. +The rain began to fall in such torrents as I had never known before. Now +the wind increased almost to a hurricane, and a sudden blast carried +away the roof of our house as if it had been a thing of paper. In a +moment we were wetted to the skin. The creek became a spreading torrent +which swept away the ruins of our house just as we had barely escaped +from it. In the darkness we clambered blindly toward the ridge, when I +heard a loud shout near us and recognized the voice of Eben Westbrook. +Never did human voice sound sweeter! "Hurry!" he shouted, "Hurry home!" +and came rushing up to seize the hands of Krag and Joergensen and take +the lead. Wet and bedraggled we hurried on, over the ridge, into the +open, across the hazel country, across the Wooded Pasture, across the +creek, up through the kitchen garden, and into the house by way of the +kitchen door. A fateful moment had arrived. + +I felt something in my throat, but I did not shrink. I had decided what +I would say. I would naught extenuate, but would fall back upon the +theory of the sacredness of human rights. My address was not to receive +a hearing. + +Our parents were about sitting down to the evening meal, and, to my +surprise, our plates lay all in their accustomed places, as if we had +not been absent for a day. My father looked up and nodded cheerfully and +mother only said: "You'd better all go up and get dry clothes on before +you eat." The hired girl peeked in from a side of the kitchen door and +drew her head back suddenly with a gulp. Eben Westbrook maintained what +I have heard called in relation to others an impassive countenance. We +went up, changed our clothes, and all came downstairs together. What a +meal it was! There was not much conversation, though father mentioned +something about the beginning of the school term. How Krag and Joergensen +did eat! But oh, the incomprehensible apathy of Parents! + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE LOWRY-TURCK ENTANGLEMENT + + +The interesting story of "The Swiss Family Robertson" told and the usual +comment made, the Colonel, still beaming, turned to the Young Lady. + +"Will you please tell us something?" he said. + +And her reply to him was very simple and graceful; + +"I can at least tell you about the 'Lowry-Turck Entanglement,' for I was +familiar with the circumstances." Then she continued: + + THE LOWRY-TURCK ENTANGLEMENT + +Apropos of the affair of Harvey Lowry and Angeline Turck, as also +apropos of many other affairs of similar nature, it is very much to be +feared that one of the proverbs is unreliable. "Necessity is the mother +of invention" comes off the tongue glibly enough, but why "mother"? What +rules the camp, the court, the grove, and what makes the world go +around? What but love, and is not Love, when personified, a male? And +has he not been the cause of more inventions than have all others +combined? Certainly it was he who suggested an invention of the +Lowry-Turck love affair. He is Necessity disguised; and he is not a +mother. + +Of course Love need not grumble. He is no worse off than are other +fathers. If a boy becomes famous in the world the fact is attributed to +his noble mother; if he becomes infamous, the community says, "Like +father, like son"--which is hardly fair. Fathers are useful. Not only +did every person who ever invented anything have a father, but without +the father romance would be robbed of one of its most useful and +steadfast figures. These remarks, prefacing a love story, may be +didactic and ponderous and prosy, but they are true. + +It is true, as well, that, though this is a love story pure and simple, +Mr. Turck, the father in the case, may, in a sense, be looked upon as +among the characters who belong to the world of romance, for he was the +very personification of one accepted type of parent in love stories, +being perverse, tyrannical and hard-hearted, looking upon lovers as the +ranchman does on wolves, and resolved to keep his daughter to himself +indefinitely. He had a red face, tufts of side whiskers which grew out +nearly at right angles, and a bellowing voice which would have made his +fortune as skipper of a sailing craft in noisy seas. It was, perhaps, +such men as Mr. Turck who brought the father into disrepute before the +first romance was written, and there is little doubt, too, that it has +been such daughters as Angeline Turck who have innocently aggravated the +father's already uncertain temper and thus made his name the byword it +has become--in fiction. + +Angeline, at the time this affair began, was seventeen and completely +sovereign over the heart of Harvey Lowry--to quote from one of the young +gentleman's letters to the young lady herself. They had been in love six +months, according to Angeline's computation, seven, according to that of +Harvey; but naturally, he had been first to feel and feed the flame. +Harvey, though successful in his suit, was not, in personal appearance, +the ideal lover for a girl of Angeline's age--that is, he was not tall, +nor dark, nor haughty of mien. On the contrary, he was short, fair and +round-faced, and had a thoroughly business-like demeanor. He looked like +a young man whose soul was all in the profit on a next shipment of +barrel-hoops, or something, when, in truth, he had endless romantic +fancies. In his sentiment lay his charm, and it was to this quality +that, as she came to know him well, the fair Angeline had completely +yielded. There had been a declaration of love and no refusal, but as yet +no formal engagement existed. That, it was mutually understood, must +come later, the delay being attributable to certain obstacles of a +financial nature. Meanwhile the time passed most pleasantly. There were +meetings where Harvey said things calculated to touch the heart, and +there was much letter-writing. It was this last which wrecked the +air-castle. + +One evening when Angeline's parents were alone, Mr. Turck startled his +wife by demanding suddenly: + +"What's that young Lowry coming here so much for? I don't like it!" + +Mrs. Turck replied mildly that she supposed Mr. Lowry came chiefly to +see Angeline. She saw nothing very wrong in that. He was said to be a +steady young man, and, of course, Angeline must have harmless company +occasionally. + +"I don't care whether he's steady or not. He's coming here too much. +Don't tell me anything about 'harmless company!' He's after Angeline, +and I won't have it! I'll look into this thing!" And Mr. Turck gave +utterance to a sound which may be indifferently described as a +determined snort. Mrs. Turck understood it, and looked for trouble of +some sort in the near future. She had reason. + +The evening before, Harvey, after leaving the house, had kissed +Angeline's hand at the garden gate. It had been at this electrical +moment that Mr. Turck looked out of the sitting-room window, instead of +attending to his newspaper as he should have done, and noted the two +forms showing dimly through the gathering shade. He did not distinctly +see the kiss, but something in the movement was vaguely reminiscent to +him. His suspicions were aroused. He had called harshly to Angeline to +come in and go to her mother, and she had obeyed, while Harvey melted +away into the summer night, after the manner of lovers who have +attracted the paternal eye. Neither of the two was much disturbed. There +was a glow in the heart of each, a glow too deep to be affected by an +ominous word or two. Yet this episode had led to Mr. Turck's outbreak +before his wife. + +The first blow fell early. Before two more days had passed Mr. Turck had +broken out at the breakfast table and had forbidden Angeline to have any +further relations of any sort with Harvey Lowry. She must not speak to +him. There were tears and quite a scene. Even the subdued Mrs. Turck +ventured to say a word, and asked what Angeline could do when meeting +Harvey on the street? To this only the curt reply was given that "a +dignified bow" was enough. It was rather hard. The old gentleman did not +know it, his meek wife did not suspect it, and Angeline would never have +believed it, but the truth is, if Angeline's life had depended on the +making of a dignified bow, it would have been short shrift for her. It +must be regretfully admitted that in the village of Willow Bend the bow, +as practiced by maids alike, was such a casual bob of the head as +conveyed not the remotest conception of any dignity. It may have been a +fact that this Arcadian bob was subject to modification among the +elders, but that does not matter. The father, looking upon Angeline's +meek face and recognizing the accustomed submission in his wife's eyes, +felt that he had done a fit and becoming morning's work, and drank his +coffee calmly, while Angeline trifled sadly with her spoon and looked +dumbly out of the nearest window. + +That evening Lowry called, and was told by the servant maid who met him +at the door that he could not enter. The young man understood well +enough that this was under Mr. Turck's direction, and went away less +dispirited than he might have been. The next day Mrs. Turck, who feared +to do otherwise, brought to the lord of the house a tinted piece of +folded paper, which proved to be a letter from Harvey to the again +suspiciously rosy Angeline. This dangerous piece of Love's fighting gear +had been detected by Mrs. Turck's eagle eye among the trifles on her +daughter's work table. A charge direct, tears, expostulations, +confession, and the delivery of the missive over to the enemy had +followed swiftly. The hair stood upon the paternal head in disapproval +as Mr. Turck held the pink letter between his thumb and forefinger and +read it stridently aloud. After all, there was little in it to excite +either anger or apprehension, for it was only an expression of hope that +the writer could see Angeline that evening at a little party at the +home of a mutual friend, but, as with venomous insects, its sting was in +its tail, for it was signed solely with these three letters: "I. L. Y." + +Now, even Mr. Turck did not need to be told what the letters he +described as "those infamous characters" signified. The world knows +them. His wife, too, flushed when he showed them to her, and then, for +once bridling a little at the "infamous," she reminded him that there +was a time when Mr. Turck himself, as a matter of custom and daily +habit, wrote those very characters at the end of all his letters; but, +though for a moment embarrassed by this allusion, the husband only +sniffed. + +Angeline had a bad half hour over the "=I. L. Y.=," and the end was +submission almost abject, for Mr. Turck would brook no half-way +measures. The girl promised neither to write to nor read any letters +from the young man so disapproved. In a sharp communication from Mr. +Turck, Harvey Lowry was made to know the unpopularity of his epistolary +efforts in the Turck household, and for a day or two apparently bowed +his head to the paternal will. But who may comprehend the ways of a +lover? One morning not a week after the "I. L. Y." affair, Mr. Turck saw +another suspicious-looking envelope in the bundle of letters he carried +home from the post-office at luncheon time. He looked hard at Angeline's +face when she opened the letter at the table and noted there was an +expression of confusion and surprise. Without a word, he stretched out +an authoritative hand, and, without a word, Angeline gave him the small, +open sheet of heavy cream colored paper. This is what he saw, drawn with +pen and ink, on the fair page: [Symbol: full] + +Only that and nothing more. + +It was now that Angeline's persecutions began in earnest. She was +questioned, and threatened, and bullied, and coaxed, but she would not +tell the meaning of those four lines drawn upon that virgin page, and +sent to her in an envelope addressed in the handwriting of Harvey Lowry. +In truth, the poor girl did not know, and could not guess, what the +thing meant, herself. Denial tears, supplication--all were of no avail. +Mr. Turck would not believe his daughter. He held the drawing upside +down, sideways, and then almost horizontal, as one does in reading where +the letters are purposely made tall and thin, but he could make nothing +of it, and raged the more at his incompetence. "It looks a little like a +side plan of a room," he muttered to himself, "but it isn't complete. +Have the fools arranged to run away and are they planning a house +already?" The idea was too much for him. He seized his hat and went +forth for advice. + +Mr. Turck was in the office of Baldison, a contractor and builder, +within five minutes. "Here, Baldison," he bellowed as he came in, "what +is this? Is it part of a plan of a house, or, if not, what is it?" + +Mr. Baldison was a cautious man, and, taking the paper, he examined the +connected lines long and deliberately. His comment, when he made it, was +not entirely satisfying. + +"It might be part of a side plan of one story," he said, "but it ain't +finished. There's only one brace in, and the cross beam is lacking. If +it wasn't for the left-hand upright, I should say it was part of a +swing-crane, but the pulley isn't strung. I don't know what it is. Who +made it?" + +But Mr. Turck did not go into particulars. He left Baldison's place and +studied out the problem in his own office; he went out again and asked +in vain the opinion of a dozen men, and he went home that evening +baffled and in a frame of mind of which the less said the better. Within +twenty-four hours Angeline was packed off to the Misses Cutlet's +boarding-school in distant Belleville, to be "finished," as her mother +described it. The irate father used other and far less becoming words. + +This shifting of the scene when, to her, so much of importance was +involved, was a most serious thing to Angeline. But it might have been +much worse than it proved at the school. Plump Bessey Payton, another +girl from Willow Bend, was there, and it was easily so arranged that the +two occupied adjoining rooms. They had been friends for years, and the +renewed companionship was much for Angeline. It aided in partial +distraction. + +And now this story, which has been--from an ordinary point of +view--little more than a comedy, develops into something very like a +tragedy. It was so to a young girl, at least. The Misses Cutlet had been +instructed to keep a sharp eye open, and report, as well as they might, +upon the quantity of Angeline's correspondence. They had little to tell. +Angeline received few letters, and none frequently from any one person, +so far as could be learned from the envelopes addressed to her. The +parents were content. + +And Angeline really had no correspondence with Harvey Lowry. She was a +young woman who would keep her word, and she did not write to him, +while from him came no message save an occasional envelope containing +only a slip of paper upon which appeared the mysterious symbol. But was +not that enough? Did it not indicate that she was still in his heart, +and that he would be always hers? Those lines must have a meaning, and +though she could not translate them, she felt it was only because Harvey +had forgotten that he had never given her the key. What of that? She +knew instinctively that the story they told was one of faith and +faithfulness. How delicate of him, and how thoughtful that such loving +reminder should come at times, and how wonderful it was that he should +have invented such a thing for her dear sake alone! Her love grew with +the months, and so, unfortunately, despite the letters with the +reassuring figure, did her unhappiness. + +It is perhaps unreasonable that we should laugh at the loves of the +young, at what we call "calf love" in the male, and a "schoolgirl's +fancy" in the maiden, for the springs of the heart do not always deepen +with the years. Well for youth is it that it owns such wonderfully +recuperative forces of mind and body; sad would it be to the elders if, +without such recuperative powers, their feelings were given such +abandonment. Youth's hurts are sometimes serious. Angeline was growing +from the subjugated girl into the suffering woman. Other young women, +she reasoned, were allowed to love and to marry the men of their choice. +Why should she be made so cruel an exception? She idealized the absent, +as the loving, so often do. In her mind, Harvey Lowry had grown from one +for whom she cared more than for others into a hero without a flaw, one +thoughtful, considerate, self-denying and altogether noble. The +sentimental vein in her nature broadened and deepened, and she placed a +greater value on the sweet reminder of the mysterious figures in the +letters. And all for her! How constant he was, and how hard the lot of +both of them! She became feverish and impatient. Her studies lost all +interest, her cheeks became paler, thinner, her manner more languid. It +could not last. + +So the months went by until the end of the scholastic year was close at +hand. Angeline would soon be in Willow Bend again and with her parents. +She would meet Harvey Lowry again--that was inevitable. What would the +near vacation bring to her? she asked herself. She was growing stubborn +now. The portentous figure of her father no longer loomed so highly in +her eyes as formerly, and she was the decided woman, with a woman's +heart and will, and a woman's rights. What might be the summer's +history! + +Accidents--as thoughtful people are much given to remark--have sometimes +great effect on the affairs of human beings. + +One day as Angeline, visiting her friend, stood looking at her still +agreeable image in Bess' mirror, she saw, stuck in the frame, among +cards, notes and photographs, a square of yellowish paper. The coloring +seemed to have come from age, but of that Angeline made no note. All she +saw or knew was that the paper bore this mystic sign upon it: +[Symbol: box] + +For a moment or two the girl stood motionless. Power of speech and +movement were gone. Then, "Bess," she called tremblingly; "what is +this?" and she held out the paper for inspection. + +"That? Oh, that is from Harvey Lowry," said Bess composedly. + +"But, oh, Bess," cried the girl excitedly, "what does it mean?" + +"Can't you guess?" was the reply. + +"No, I can't," was the slow answer, "and--and I've seen it before." + +The careless Bess was aroused now, and there was a flash in her black +eyes. "How dare Harvey Lowry have sent one of those to any one else?" +she broke out impetuously, but her excitement was only momentary. She +began to laugh. "Well, it was a good while ago, after all." And so her +anger vanished. + +Angeline was recovering herself, though with an effort. "But tell +me--tell me what it means," she demanded. + +"Why, you stupid girl!" was the reply. "I guessed it in the first ten +minutes--and once we signed all our letters with it. Now, see here," and +she took paper and pencil and drew a perpendicular mark, thus: +[Symbol: vertical] + +"That is 'I' isn't it? Well then, I'll put on this mark," and she added +a line horizontally, making this figure: [Symbol: ell] + +"That's an 'L' you see. Next, to make your 'Y,' you put on this"--she +made two added marks--"and you have this: [Symbol: full] + +"There's your 'I. L. Y.' sign!" + +Angeline was stunned. Never was a dream dispelled so suddenly and +harshly. Not for her had that mystic figure been devised, but for +another, and it had been utilized a second time, as if there were no +sacredness to such things! It mattered not how much Harvey Lowry might +be interested in her now, she was but a sort of second-hand girl. Anger +took the place of her unhappiness. "Delicate and thoughtful," indeed! To +send those reassuring notes to her was now but a cheap impertinence! She +had been accustomed, in her pity of herself, to quote something from +Shakespeare which seemed to her to have a peculiarly sad and fitting +application: "Not poppy, nor mandragora, nor all the drowsy syrups of +the world, shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep which thou +owed'st yesterday!" + +Here were poppy and mandragora and syrups enough, all administered in +one rude prescription, as to the efficacy of which there could be no +shadow of a doubt! + +Somehow the brooding and disappointed woman seemed to melt away now, and +there reappeared the impulsive girl again. It was an angry girl, though. +Her first grief over--and it lasted but for a day--she resolved upon an +epistolary feat of her own. She wrote three letters. The first was to +Harvey Lowry. It was not quite, but nearly, as school-girlish as she +might have written a year earlier, being distinctly of the "'tis better +thus" variety and "coldly dissecting," as she afterwards said in +confidence to a bosom friend. In it she bade her admirer an eternal +farewell, notwithstanding the fact that they must inevitably see each +other every day in the week as soon as she returned to Willow Bend. This +labored epistle she placed in another, of a meek and lowly tenor, to her +father. Both of these she inclosed in a letter to her mother. + +It is needless to say that upon receipt of these letters in Willow Bend +the Turck family fairly glowed. The old gentleman sent Angeline's letter +to Harvey, accompanied by a stiff one of his own, and sent to Belleville +a substantial addition to his daughter's quarterly allowance. + +As to Harvey Lowry, who has been much neglected, his own story deserves +some attention now. When he had read the two letters he was a most +perplexed young man. It had never occurred to him that to use his "I. L. +Y." device a second time, or rather with a second girl, was anything out +of the way, for, with all his sentiment, Harvey was not insistent upon +the finer shadings in the affairs of life, even when appertaining to the +heart. He had really cared for Angeline, but he did not become a soured +and disappointed man. Despite the "dissecting" letter, he and Angeline +often met and spoke in later times, and when, finally, she married, and +married well, there was none more gratified than he. Time tells in the +village as much as it does elsewhere. Nothing could extract quite all +the romance from the ingenious Harvey. After fluttering around the +village beauties for a time he ended by marrying a sweet-tempered, +freckled country girl, with whom he lives in great content in a small +house, crowded now with jolly, freckled boys and girls. And here comes +relation of something which shows how hard it is to eliminate the once +implanted sentimental tendency. To this day, when the father of the +freckled family has occasion to write to the mother, he invariably signs +his letters: [Symbol: full] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE PALE PEACOCK AND THE PURPLE HERRING + + +The Young Lady was much applauded. Colonel Livingstone looked into +Stafford's eyes, and was hesitant. Yet he still had something of the old +masterly way about him, and he spoke out openly and very frankly. There +is something about the United States army officer that is worth while. +He rose to the occasion. The manner in which he rose to it was worthy of +his occupation and rank. He said: + +"You have done things, my boy. You have bossed this train. You have +brought to us a great engineering and overbearing quality." + +And the Colonel almost blushed in an affectionate sort of lapse. "And +yet it may be that you expect to get away from me, Mr. Stafford. You +have got to tell your own story before we escape from here through this +soon to be open road that you have largely made for us. Tell us the +story, Mr. Stafford." + +There are times when a strong man may be crushed, but it is rarely, save +by thought of a a woman. Stafford looked slantwise up the aisle, and +then with a look that was tell-tale in his eyes as he cast them toward +Her, where she was sitting three or four seats away. He told the story +of + + THE PALE PEACOCK AND THE PURPLE HERRING + +This is not really more the story of the Pale Peacock and the Purple +Herring than it is of John and Agnes, but that does not matter much, for +the first account encompasses the second, in a way. What is chiefly +curious is the difference, in point of view, between the Peacock and +Herring, and the other two. + +Once there was a peacock. Never before was so beautiful a peacock as +she. She was snow-white except as to her head and tail. Her appearance +was something wonderful. From her head down to her shoulders the hues +blended and flashed in iridescent green. Whenever she moved herself in +the slightest degree there appeared a lighting in color passionately +vivid. From about her neck and breast there shone what is known as a +lambent flame which at times became tempestuous. So the neck and +shoulders melted into the snow-white of the body, a restless glimmering +ebbing into a milky way. It was just so with the tail. + +Well, this peacock was unlike other peacocks. She was not--eh?--she was +not morbid, but she was solitary and reflective and intensely emotional +and sentimental. Of course she had two feet and had a voice, but the +less said of them the better. She would wander up and down by the +lakeside and think of all that might be. She scarcely dreamed that there +was to come to her what was her secret heart's desire, but in time it +came. She met the Purple Herring. With each of them it was a case of +infatuation at first sight. + +Now the Purple Herring was almost as much of an exceptional case as the +Pale Peacock. He was the only purple herring in all the great lakes, and +was practically the King of the Herrings, and was respected as such. +Personally, he had in his nature many of the traits of the Pale Peacock. +He, too, was emotional, faithful, and impassioned. They loved. + +Here was a most unfortunate situation. Naturally, the Purple Herring +could not get along very well upon the land, and, naturally too, the +Peacock could not flourish in the water. It was not exactly a case of +Platonic love; it was a case of hopeless love, in a way, and yet, not +altogether hopeless, for they were happy. It came to this, that they +made the best of things, and that the Peacock, day after day, would +wander along upon the sands which the water lapped, while the Herring +would swim along beside her, and they would exchange tender confidences, +and that, to amuse her, he would tell her tales, many tales, of the +wonders of the vasty deep of the lake. He told her why the fish flies +came in autumn and smeared the windows and made slippery the sidewalks +of the great city; of how they lay in the mud at the bottom of the lake, +like little short sticks, and then finally burst open and came to the +surface and floated away into town. He told her of his talk with Mrs. +Whitefish, and of how she did not think the spawn was getting along as +well as usual. He told her of a thousand things, and they were happy. + +They often talked too, this united yet effectually separated pair, of +what they saw upon the shores of the placid lake, whose creamy sands, +outside the city, sloped down to the water's edge from green fields and +waving groves. + +Many people walked along the sands, and children played and romped there +all day. At sunset the Purple Herring began to look with special +interest for the lovers who came in pairs and sat until late, talking, +and sometimes in blissful silence while they listened to the soft +lapping of the waves upon the shore. + +One day the Purple Herring told the Pale Peacock about one of these +pairs of lovers, the only pair, he said, which were not happy. + +"And I can't imagine why they are not, either," said the Purple Herring. + +"Nor can I, although I have not yet heard all you know about them," said +the Pale Peacock. "How two lovers who may live together forever, who are +not kept from each other by such a fate as separates you and me--how men +and women who love each other can be unhappy, is more than I can conjure +up by any stretch of fancy!" + +"Her name is Agnes," began the Purple Herring, "and when I first saw her +she was walking slowly along the shore, back and forth, on a stretch of +beach bordering the great park at the head of the lake. The sky was red +after sunset, and in the southwest hung the new moon, with a great star +over it. She was a beautiful lady, but she looked perplexed and a little +sad even on that first evening. I did not notice the perplexity and +sorrow on her sweet face at the time, but afterward I remembered it. + +"Suddenly her face was all lighted up by some light that was not of the +western sky, nor of the little bent moon, nor the great star. Her eyes +shone, her cheeks became pink like the inside of a pink shell, and I +looked where her eyes were turned. I saw a man walking rapidly toward +her, and I thought, 'Only another pair of lovers!' + +"But this was no common pair; I could not leave them, they were so +strangely attractive. Their voices thrilled me as I heard them. I could +feel all around the vibrations of deep emotion, electrical, disturbing, +and enchanting. The lady began their conversation: + +"'The day has been so long!' she said. 'And our time together is so +short!' the man replied. + +"They did not touch each other. They did not even take each other's +hands. They only walked slowly along the shore, side by side, yet I and +all the world had but to see them to know that they were lovers. + +"'Agnes,' the man said, 'how happy the men and women are who have a home +together! I would not care how humble the roof was that sheltered you +and me. How glad I would be to work for you, to plan, and in every way +live for you--even now I live only for you!--but what a joy it would be +if it could all be with you!' + +"'Do not speak of it, John,' the woman said, and her voice trembled. + +"'How many there are,' the man continued, passionately, 'how many there +are who are chained together, straining both at the chain! They would be +free, and cannot. Their dwelling-place is no home. They fret and sting +each other, while you and I--" + +"'John!' the lady interrupted him. + +"'Forgive me!' he said, his tone suddenly changing. 'I can see you but +for a few minutes, and I proceed to make you miserable! Forgive me! Tell +me about yourself--what you are thinking, what you are reading. Has the +white rose blossomed in your garden? How is my friend Rex, and why +didn't you bring him with you?' + +"She answered first about the dog, Rex, and then their talk grew +uninteresting, or it grew late, so that I became sleepy; I don't know +which, but soon they parted, and, would you believe it? the man didn't +even kiss her once, nor touch her hand! + +"I saw this strange couple many times again during that clear bright +June weather, and sometimes I heard their talk. There was always +something about it that made me think of heat-lightning, with a mystery +of earnestness even in their light banter and play of talk. + +"You must have observed that these human creatures often mean things +they do not say, and yet contrive that the sense shall show through +their misleading words. These two often talked lightly and laughed +together, but there was ever an undercurrent of feeling of such deepness +and power as I could not comprehend; its mystery almost irritated me. + +"One day--it was at night--not a living soul was to be seen on the sands +as the two came walking toward me. They came swiftly as if they would +walk into the water, but stopped there at its edge--and I listened, +fascinated by their tense faces, and deep low voices. + +"'We must do what is right,' the man was saying. 'Honor binds you, and +it binds me. We must not play with fire. I have taken the step which +parts us.' + +"'So soon!' said she. + +"'None too soon!' the man protested. Then he burst out, as if he could +not keep what came like a torrent from his lips. + +"'Help me! help me! We must decide and act together! I cannot leave you +without your help!' + +"The lady turned her face from him for a moment. She looked away across +the water, and the tears which had started to her eyes seemed as if +commanded not to fall. Pale she was, pale was her face, and with the +look of ice with snow upon it. Her voice, when she turned to him again, +did not seem like her voice--the sound of it made him start. + +"'You are right,' she said, 'Good-bye. God bless you!' + +"'Agnes!' the man cried, as she turned away. + +"'Go,' she answered. + +"The man looked at her as if to fix her image upon his soul forever, and +said, repeating her words: 'Good-bye, God bless you!' + +"Then he walked quickly off into the park, and away, never looking back. +The lady sank down on a seat by the water's edge. For a long time I +watched her, and she did not move. When, finally, she arose and walked +away, I felt that I was seeing her, and I also had seen the man, for the +last time. And so it was. I have watched for them in vain. The man has +gone to the ends of the earth. That I know by the look on his face and +hers. She will never see him again, nor will she walk by these waters +where she used to walk with him. But why? That is what puzzles me!" + +"What fools these mortals be!" said the Pale Peacock, without the least +idea that any one else had ever before made that remark. + +Pale Death with even tread knocks at the threshold of rich and poor. +"Pallida mors aequam pulsat," etc. One day the Purple Herring died, and +the Pale Peacock suffered as suffer those who love and are bereaved. +Little cared she for longer life, and she wanted to pine away. She went +to a policeman on the corner, and said: "Tell me how to pine." + +"What now! What now!" said the policeman and he gave her no assistance. + +But she must pine. She wanted to pine away. She wandered on and met the +Cream-Colored Cat, and to her she told her tale. Now, the Cream-Colored +Cat had herself learned to pine, having lost her loving mistress, and, +being of an affable and affectionate nature, she at once revealed the +secret of pining to the Pale Peacock, and they joined forces and pined +together. And they pined, and they pined, and they pined. They pined +until they became a Sublimated Substance--(just what a Sublimated +Substance is does not matter in this story)--and they pined along until +they became something so intangible they were almost like a little fog; +that is, they were like a young fog, for as a fog gets older and begins +to dissipate, it gets thinner, so that the younger a fog is, the thicker +it is. Finally it becomes a vapor. And they became what may be called an +Evanescent Vapor, until all was lost in the Empyrean. And the souls of +the Pale Peacock and the Purple Herring were at last commingled. + +Perhaps it was so in the end with the souls of John and Agnes. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE RELEASE + + +As Stafford concluded his fanciful, dreamy but, seemingly, from his +manner, most earnest story, the Far Away Lady gave him a single +appealing glance and then arose and departed for her own car. As she +passed he saw that there were tears in her eyes. They did not speak nor +did they meet again that day, but he was resolved to breakfast with her +in the morning. + +Morning opened brilliantly and as he entered the dining car, at the time +he knew she would be there, he saw that the sun which had but just +climbed lazily above the mountain tops, was engaged in the task of +gilding her hair. He advanced with more courage than he had on the first +occasion. + +"Good morning, the world is in a good humor to-day, is it not," was his +comment as he took his seat. "Have you noticed that the sun, whose +business it is to indicate the world's moods, has leaped through the +window and is playing with your head when he isn't dancing on the +table-cloth?" + +She looked up smilingly, but before she could answer, there came an +interruption. The door of the car opened and there stalked up to them +the big conductor, owner of the stubby red moustache, with a look in his +eyes which indicated that he had swift remarks to make. He broke out +promptly: "Mr. Stafford, you are wanted at the wire, and, you bet, +there's something doing." + +Pleasant to the looker-on, as to them, are the relations and +understandings regarding the little side issues and incidents of life +between a man and woman of intelligence and education when they are in +love with each other, even though that love must be repressed and +unexpressed. The interjection of the conductor was delightful to the +woman in this case, because it was an involuntary compliment to the man +opposite her at the table. It was the breaking in of a fine hireling +upon the man of brains and accomplishments, the call upon him for aid in +this time of casual need. Stafford's heart danced as he caught the look, +because he recognized its full significance. + +And then as he rose he grinned, because he saw that the conductor was +evidently in trouble. His face indicated that. There was one +appreciative look into the face of the smiling woman and then he went +out to deal as he might with the existing condition of affairs. He +rather enjoyed these frequent interviews with the coming saviors. They +had a smart operator at the other end of the wire and, as he had +learned, the boss of the rescuing train was assuredly a railroad man of +might and much acuteness. They had, as already told, indulged in a +verbal brush or two. Connection was made and the first thing Stafford +got was: + +"Can't you chumps do anything over there?" + +"Do anything!" was Stafford's reply. "Do anything! We are a dead train, +lying helpless, with our nose stuck into four hundred thousand million +feet of packed snow! What are you doing, yourselves, with all the +engines you want and a snow-plow, and all the men you want? It strikes +me that as butters-in you are about the worst existing." + +And then from the boss of the rescuing train Stafford listened to +clicked language the recollection of which was ever afterward among the +delights of his life. It referred to his personal character and to his +ancestry and to a large variety of things besides. It was an admirable +effort, an oration trimmed with red exclusively. + +And Stafford, understanding that something would, naturally, be expected +of him in return, cut loose with his own store of expletives. His four +years' absence from the country had left him somewhat deficient in +modern Americanisms, but, during that time, as became a man handling +lazy coolies, he had acquired a stock of Orientalisms that were not +altogether without merit, and these he launched at the gentleman with +whom he was engaged in conversation. + +Evidently the man at the other end was delighted, for this was his +reply: + +"I don't know who you are who appear to be running things over there, +but you seem to have some stuff in you." + +"That's all right," said Stafford, "but we've got some curiosity over +here. What have you got for a snow-plow, anyhow--a mowing-machine, or a +reaper?" + +"We'll show you, my child! Oh, we'll show you! And I've got some mighty +good news for you. Things are doing. We've thrown away the trinket we've +been trying to use, because we've just got a new snow-plow from the +East. She's a monster, and a beauty of the new style. Why, she just +lives on snow--wants a mountain of it for breakfast, two for dinner, +another for supper, throws away what she doesn't eat, and throws it a +mile! She's eating her way toward you now, and she's eating mighty fast. +She was hungrier than usual to-day. Watch our smoke, that is if you can +see it above the snow she throws, and we're making lots of smoke, too. +We'll save your sinful bodies, if we can't your souls, this very day. +Get ready for moving. We'll be with you somewhere between one and four +o'clock. Good-by." + +Stafford gave a whoop--he couldn't help it--and imparted the good news +to those about him. In no time it was all over the train, and then, to +the accompaniment of satisfied exclamations, there was bustle and a +gathering together of things everywhere, for during the long wait there +had been much scattering of personal belongings. This was a business +soon accomplished, to be followed by a period of excited waiting. + +It was almost precisely three o'clock when the prisoners, listening like +those at Lucknow, heard, faint and far beyond the snowdrifts, something +like the piper's blast. It was the distant triumphant whoop of a +locomotive. Nearer and more loudly it approached and, presently, in the +distance, could be perceived dimly a column of smoke. The advance was +not rapid, as a matter of course, but neither was it very slow, and, at +last, the whooping monster was in sight, or, rather, not the monster +itself, but a cloud of smoke in front of which, swirling, and dense, was +a roaring snowstorm. The end was nearly reached. The relief train, its +engineers still overworking their whistles, came on, the snow-plow still +doing its fierce work, until the two trains stood there close together, +the nozzle of the locomotive resting against the snow-plow lovingly. + +There was a scramble of people from the train so long imprisoned as +there was also from the rescuing train, and there followed a general +time of hand-shaking and congratulation. Stafford had the pleasure of +meeting the train boss with whom he had been talking in the morning, and +took a fancy to that rugged and accomplished civil engineer and railroad +man at once, as evidently did the other man to him. Then came business. +The boss explained the situation: + +"You are in our way. We have work to do in behind you, and we can't pass +you. We've got to get you back to the siding, about ten miles from here. +We'll have to haul you, I suppose. Have you any coal?" + +"Not ten pounds," was the answer of the engineer of the rescued train. +"Used it all up, and mighty carefully, too, for heat. Been using bushes +for wood. Another day and there'd have been trouble. Lucky it hasn't +been very cold." + +"Yes, we expected that, and can supply you. We've a flat car load along. +We'll haul you back to the siding and get the coal on there. It's the +only way." + +The coupling was made, the slow retreat of the rescuing train to the +siding, taking over an hour, accomplished, as was the transfer of coal +and water, with great difficulty and much work of trainmen, and, at +last, the train from San Francisco was itself again. It moved forward, +its passengers cheering the train on the side track which was also +pulling out, but toward the West. The episode was over. Upon the rear +platform of the last car as the train drew eastward stood, all alone, +the big blonde porter. + +The train was whirling toward Denver. There was a great reunion after +supper, presided over by Colonel Livingston, of course, to celebrate, as +the Young Lady expressed it, their providential escape from the largest +island of Juan Fernandez in the world, but the Far Away Lady was not +present. Stafford wondered, and was restless and disappointed. As time +wore on, he could not endure it very well, and, withdrawing quietly, +went forward to her car, adjoining. What he saw as he entered--and the +sight gladdened him, for he feared that she had retired--was the lady +sitting alone by the window, still, and apparently dreaming. He advanced +and seated himself beside her. She looked at him and smiled, but said +nothing. + +"Why are you not in the Cassowary with all the rest?" he asked. "They +are rejoicing." + +She made no answer to his question: "I hope you are happy, John," she +said gently. "I heard of your marriage to the American girl at the +legation in St. Petersburg, and I prayed that"--but she never finished +the sentence. + +"Wh-a-t!" gasped Stafford, "Married! I--What the--"--and he almost +forgot himself, this man fresh from handling coolies--then more gently +and most sadly: "Agnes, you should have known better! Oh, you should +have known better! There was a Stafford married there, it is true, a +relation of mine, a cousin. It was through him I made my Russian +connection--but, Agnes, how could you! Did you think there was room in +my heart for another woman, and so soon? But women are strange +creatures," he concluded bitterly. + +She could not answer him at first, though the light which came into her +face should have represented courage; she could but murmur brokenly: + +"Forgive me. You must do that--but, oh, John, what could I think? It all +seemed so assured. And I was half insane, and doubting all the world. +And now, now you have made me very happy. I cannot tell you"--and she +failed, weakly, for words. + +Every thought and impulse of the man changed on the moment. A great wave +of tenderness swept over him: + +"Forgive you? Of course I do," he said impetuously, "I can understand. +Poor girl, you must have suffered. Who wouldn't at the unveiling of such +a man?" Then came the more regardful thought: + +[Illustration: "WE SHALL MEET AT BREAKFAST"] + +"But how is it with you, Agnes? Is life as black as ever?" + +"My husband died two years ago," she barely whispered. + +The eyes of those who have been long imprisoned cannot, at first, when +freedom comes, see in the ordinary light of day, much less when it is +glorious sunlight, and it was some moments before the souls' eyes of +these two became accustomed to its splendor. Even then, no word was +said. They were alone. He but gathered her closely in his arms and +kissed her without stint. He had been starving long enough. So he held +her for a time and, when he released her and spoke at last, it was but +to say in a voice by no means modulated: + +"Agnes, I cannot talk, and you know why. I am going away now. We shall +meet at breakfast. I but thank God." + +And so he left her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +LOVE'S INSOLENCE + + +The easy impudence, the loving insolence, the large, feudal lord air of +proprietorship, of the man who has just come into possession of the one +woman is sometimes a development beyond belief. Reprehensible, +certainly. + +Stafford had not slept much. All night he had lain awake, trying to +realize what it was that had come to him, the beneficence of Providence, +the magnitude of what earth has sometimes to give. It was only with dawn +that he slept at all, and his dreams were good. As for her, the Far Away +Lady, who shall tell what thoughts or dreams were hers? + +He came into the dining car that morning, refreshed and exalted, and +overlooking and sweeping as an eagle in his first morning swing from his +eyrie. He was splendidly intolerable, this triumphant lover who had +recovered his equipoise and was himself of the years ago. Any lofty +simile would do for him. He came stalking in like a king to a +coronation, with but one redeeming feature to the look upon his face, +an expression which resembled gratitude. And who was it that entered the +car a moment or two after he had seated himself at the breakfast table? +Could this flush-faced, slender creature, bright and almost challenging +of eye, be the Far Away Lady, she of the sad and dreamy look! It was +she, certainly. Dr. Love, you are a wonder! All the other physicians of +the world, all the health resorts of the world, can neither advise nor +have effect toward swift recuperation in comparison with you unhampered! +They are but as vapors, or as the things which are not. + +The greetings of the morning were exchanged--it was nearly noon, by the +way, for they had lain long at Denver--the breakfast was ordered and +then he leaned back and looked in her face, smilingly: "Where shall we +live?" he asked blandly, as if it were but a resumed conversation. "Have +you fallen in love with lotus-eating in Southern California, or are +there other regions, still?" + +Did my lady lately, so "sober, steadfast and demure," blanche or start +at this daring, overbearing opening? Not she. She may have blushed a +little, but well she knew the ways of her whimsical, perplexing lover. +Her eyes flashed back at his with the tender, quizzical look in them and +she laughed. Then a soberer expression came, and she spoke earnestly and +thoughtfully: + +"I have heard homesick people, living among the oranges, speak longingly +of a place they called 'God's country.' I think we should make our home +somewhere in 'God's country,' do you not?" + +"Yes, dear," he exclaimed delightedly, "but where and what is 'God's +country?' We hear about it, but its boundaries seem undefined. I take it +that each individual has his or her ideal. I am confident, though, that +ours are the same. Is not that so?" + +"To me," she spoke bravely, "'God's country' is, first of all, where you +are, and," she added reverently, "of course God is everywhere." + +"Bless you," he said, "but, go on. Let us consider what we two think the +essentials for our own 'God's country.'" + +"It must be a country where the grass grows, where sod, turf, +close-woven grass, cover the ground," she answered promptly. "The raw, +unkempt plains and hills of the arid regions are not for us, nor is the +stormless life of the land of oranges and grapes. We want, first of +all, the good green sod, and, next, trees, waving, luxuriant elms and +oaks and ash and beech and all their kindred, and their vines as well, +wild grapes and ivy and bitter-sweet." + +He smiled. "You have begun with the command in Genesis, instructing the +Earth to bear, and so on, but I should go one step back in the epic of +Creation and say, let us live by the waters where they are 'gathered +together unto one place.' We must have a great body of water near us +and, we must have rain." + +"Yes, in summer, rain; in winter, snow. I want the four seasons." + +"I don't know where we are to find four, that is an absolutely complete +four," he said. "We can rarely boast a spring in its entirety. It seems +to exist only in the dreams of the poets, or in England. I saw a real +spring in England. But there are some pretty fair imitations of it, I'll +admit, in many of our states, notably, for instance, in Michigan and +Wisconsin." Adroit, time-serving man! + +"Well, we can get along without an elaborate spring," she laughed, "if +we can have a June, a real June, once a year." + +And so they considered deliciously until it was decided that "God's +country" for them, implied a green country in summer and a white country +in winter, with vast water near, if possible, and that from Maine to the +Western Mountains it existed, all without prejudice to other "God's +countries" for other mortals elsewhere born. + +Straightforward, reckless, trusting confidence, was it not, this +conversation between the man and woman thus rejoined, but he was of the +sort who do things, and she was a woman given fully. Besides--though in +a world which ended--they had dreamed before. + +This matter of great importance settled, there was silence for a time. +He looked upon her with devouring eyes. At last he broke forth: + +"Now I want to draw my breath, but find it difficult. I am going to lean +back and study you and try to think of the world as it has rearranged +itself. I have not grasped it all yet. It is odd; it is great! I have +you and you can't get away from me now! It is wonderful, this sudden +possession, the possession rightly, even in all the conventional, in all +that the weakling centuries dictate. No wonder that I am dazed. Ever as +the world revolves, come new revelations of thought and of all +existence. I dreamed that I knew things, but I didn't. + +"What are you going to do about it, dearie? My heart is like a kettle in +which everything is boiling, and it is foaming over the top with love +for you. Can you not help me? What are you going to put into the kettle +to stop this unseemly boiling? I don't want you to pour in cold water, +or take the kettle off, or put the fire out. Oh, well, let 'er boil! I +am afraid, my dear, that you will have to take care of me most of the +time. I'm irresponsible. + +"Let us talk about something practical, my dear woman," he rambled on. +"You look at me with your great eyes, and you know what the inevitable +is. You know that you and I must face the world and all its dragons +together after this. What fun it will be! Have you any suggestions to +make? By the way, I like the trick of the top of your garments, the +arrangement about your throat. You have tact and taste, and sense, my +dear, yet you lack a mountain of judgment and discretion. You have +intrusted yourself to me, reckless person! Now, cut loose and tell me +something. I think that expression 'cut loose' is one of the best of all +our Americanisms. Tell me something." + +What could the woman say? She was puzzled over this wild, +fumbling-thoughted lover, with his commingled gleams of fact and fancy. +But ever to the more admirable of the sexes comes divination. There came +into this gentle woman's mind a sudden radiance of comprehension. She +knew what he was seeking. He wanted her, with all the selfishness of +love, to be foolish with him. And this is what she said: + +"I don't know. I only know what I think of his heart and soul, of the +resources and qualities of one man in the world and that I am but the +dependent woman--and I am most content, dear." + +Then she became more venturesome and spoke more definitely and +practically, as she knew he wished her to. She looked him squarely in +the eyes: + +"Make that place for us across the lake, the place of which we dreamed. +Never mind now about the town house. That will take care of itself, but +the dream place, the 'Shack,' will not. When you were working with your +coolies in another hemisphere I hope and believe you had your dreams +about me, hopeless as they may have seemed. I want to tell you, great +heart, that men do not dream all the dreams. Is it unwomanly, is it not +just to you and as it should be that I should say to you now that the +woman in America"--and her voice was tremulous--"was dreaming quite as +constantly and sadly as the man upon the Russian steppes." + +She was looking at him steadfastly and in her eyes were tears and the +light which gleams only when the dearest of all fires is burning, a +light reflected and intensified, if that were possible, in the eyes of +him who was leaning silently forward and hardly breathing. She had +gratified his wish. She had "cut loose." + +They looked out upon the Kansas prairie, across which the train was +scurrying. There were occasional houses, far apart, but the notable +objects of the landscape were gaunt windmills which in midsummer drew +water for the herds of cattle which even at this season could be seen +huddled, more or less comfortably, here and there. The wind had swept +bare great patches of pasture land and some of the cattle were browsing +contentedly upon the dried grass left in autumn. There were many herds +of them but the simile of "cattle on a thousand hills" did not apply, +for there were no hills. The travelers looked out upon what was but an +illimitable white blanket, with dots upon it. They looked upon a great +country, but it was not for them. + +They left the dining car and visited the Cassowary, where were still +assembled a number of the group for whom through the days of +imprisonment the luxurious sleeper had been a gathering-place, but they +did not linger there. They sought the sleeping-car of the Far Away Lady +where they lingered until night fell, for what they had said to each +other was only the beginning. They had much to tell, and when Stafford +slept that night there came to him no vexing or distempered dreams. He +had come to a full realization of his new world and all its points of +compass. To this strong, almost turbulent character a great peace and +content had come. Though he was lying in the berth of a sleeping car +there were in his ears, vague and incomplete words of the hackneyed but +pleasant benediction: + + "Sleep sweet within this quiet room, * * * whoe'er thou + art, * * * no mournful yesterdays * * * disturb thy heart." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +AT LAST + + +Stafford waited for the Far Away Lady in the morning--she was to come to +breakfast at ten o'clock--and met her as she entered the Cassowary. They +went into the dining car together, and, as they seated themselves, she +noted the added buoyancy of his look and was prepared for anything. The +breakfast ordered, he leaned back and asked complacently: + +"What do you think of clocks?" + +The Far Away Lady looked at him in mild amazement: "Are you not a trifle +vague?" she asked. "Is not that like what I have heard you call too much +of a 'general proposition'? How can I answer you when I do not know what +you mean?" + +"Oh, well, maybe it was only a sort of 'general proposition,' but it was +in earnest. This, my dear, is an important subject. They have clocks in +houses, do they not? Now, it so happens that I am mightily interested in +a home and, so, am necessarily interested in clocks. This home is not +yet made, but it is as sure as anything within man's mortal scope may +be, and clocks are part of the general theme. My dear lady, help me +out." + +She looked upon him indulgently in his lunacy. She understood, as she +had the day before, though now the understanding was simple, since she +had the key to his mood. Besides, even in the exuberance of his +feelings, he was apparently, not quite so royally driveling, as on the +occasion of his first outbreak. Her look grew almost motherly as he +checked himself suddenly and informed her that he was pinching his arm +to be sure that everything was true. + +"Yes," he continued, "there is a great deal to clocks. They are +wonderfully cheering and companionable. Their ticking, after a little, +never annoys you, and you somehow, come to really need it and to feel a +loss when the clock is stopped. It is, in a way, like the sound of the +cricket on the hearth. While it is ticking you feel as if you had +something alive and friendly about you." + +"I like clocks, too," said the Far Away Lady, smiling into his foolish +face. + +"I had two clocks in China," went on the beaming Stafford, "and I had +them with me wherever I was stationed. The transportation of such things +was a nuisance, but they paid their way. One was a pretty clock with a +softly beaming face, who struck the hours with a delightful chime. The +other was a little alarm clock, and he was noisy and tough. He was a +profligate. He became confidential with me, but there was always a +certain reservation. Our souls never got absolutely close together, but +he was a bulwark and a brother. He was all there. The charming clock +with the chime I called St. Cecelia, and the little tough clock I called +Billy. Sweetheart, you can hardly imagine what a comfort the two were to +me. Away off there in the gray wastes of a vast territory, an engineer +solving his problems practically alone, longing occasionally for +companionship and finding it not among the alien Russian assistants or +among the flat-faced Celestial laborers--well, then I'd go in to St. +Cecelia and Billy, and she would console softly and Billy would tick and +swear with me in the most intimate companionship and understanding, and +brace me up. Why, my girl, that clock was my right hand man and my +adviser. I don't suppose he really advised, but he was somehow, always +on deck. Billy and St. Cecelia are both in my baggage now." + +"Billy appeals to me," said the lady. "Did he always awaken you?" + +"No," admitted Stafford, "I was usually awakened by the racket of the +coolies. Their clatter and chatter made them worse than sparrows. It +wasn't Billy's utility as an alarm clock which endeared him, but a sort +of personal affection which developed in me because he really deserved +it. We were drawn together. St. Cecelia and I respected and admired each +other, but Billy was such a flagrant fellow and whooped it up so when he +struck that I got rather to lean upon him when I had anything +approaching the blues. I had them, sometimes," said he more slowly and +looking at her earnestly, "but Billy always sounded a note of reckless +plunging ahead and hopefulness." + +Here he stopped talking, apparently seized with a sudden inspiration. +Then, after a moment, he went on in the most casual manner: "By the way, +dear, why can't we have Billy in the kitchen of the Shack? His hands +show clearly against his face and he'd be excessively good to boil eggs +by." + +The fair countenance of the woman became suffused and the depths of her +eyes were suddenly peopled beyond all the vision of any fate-reader's +crystal. All the nymphs of love and sweet regard were there. She, like +him, had been dreaming much of the Shack since their parting of the +night before, and the knowledge that he also had been thinking of it, +was something wonderful to her. He, too, then had been having fancies +about the Shack, the dream home by the side of the water, the vision of +the past, the certainty, now, of the future. They would never abandon +that idea. And now there came to her--she could see nothing else--the +miserable scene of the years past, the shore and the blue lake waters +and the man with bursting heart drawing a picture which was at the time +indeed a fantasy, talking bravely, seeking to hide his own suffering and +make hers less, to gloss over the hard aspect of the parting,--and +failing miserably. + +She reached her hand across and put it in that of Stafford: + +"We will have Billy and St. Cecelia both," she whispered. + +Now these were not young people in their 'teens nor in the early +twenties, yet they said and did what is now being told of them. Is the +gold of the world, are all its great passions and vast affection, but +for the callow! + +"There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four," saith +the venerable and justly popular author of Proverbs, and he concludes +and crowns the list with "the way of a man with a maid." He might have +made the same comment regarding the way of a maid with a man, but either +way is insignificant in comparison with the ways of an intelligent man +and woman in the full flux and prime of life, and who have learned. +There is a difference indescribable between youth and those who have +come to the understanding comprehension of what is the greatest thing in +the world. They own the consciousness of its magnitude, a knowledge +which the others lack. Talk about love-making! Theirs is the +unconscious, intense and honest art of the old masters. + +He dawdled on in his day dream: "You know about the dogs, don't +you?"--she nodded--"and we'll have chickens, of course, far from +the house and garden, snow-white Leghorns, since they lay +voraciously--'voracious' is the word--and eggs are the spice of life. +There'll be other things to eat, too, and in sunny cleared places in the +wood there will be the most voluptuous asparagus and strawberry beds in +the world, and, as for the eye and nose, your own flower garden, near +the Shack,--Have we not talked of it, somewhere, before?--what a garden +that will be! I know it already, because I know your fancies. No park +gardening there, but the natural beauty and abandon of nature with a +friend at hand. I can shut my eyes and see the roses and the dahlias and +the hollyhocks and the old-fashioned pinks and the lilacs and all the +old flowers and shrubs and a host of the newer ones which have won a +deserved place since Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, and there is in my +nostrils a blending of perfumes that makes any mention of Araby the +Blest seem puerile, while the desert that 'shall rejoice and blossom as +the rose' will be but as a sand spit compared with our responsive but +untamed estate. + +"And," he continued, "there is a fad of my own which I have not yet +mentioned. I am going to be a benefactor of mankind--I suppose it was in +me and had to come out--and our jungle home will afford the opportunity +for carrying out my beneficent designs. I am going to make a domestic +bird of one of the most desirable of birds existent. I refer to the +quail, the bird that whistles on country fences and doesn't on toast. +I'm going to get a lot of them and treat them as if they were and had +always been part of the family. They shall have a great wire-covered +range and all conveniences of an outdoor home, and I'm going to keep on +raising them and experimenting and trying until I have a really tame +quail, one with atrophied wings and a trusting heart. That we'll do, +dear, and coming generations shall rise up and call us blessed." + +She looked upon him still indulgently. It was all concerning their life +across the lake, and slight wonder was it that she was at one with him +in his dreaming, he the man of action, the man with the sense of humor +and perception of the grotesque, who always laughed at things,--that he +should thus idle so happily in fancy with the Shack and its +surroundings, well, she felt in its fullness love's compliment to her. +She knew the keynote of it all and but encouraged him with speaking +eyes. He was looking out of the window now but he turned to her in a +moment: + +"It seems to me," he said, "that we are already getting a little of the +flavor of our own country. I'll be imagining the Pines of Saginaw next. +Look out upon that expanse of snow."--The train was tearing down through +the Des Moines valley now--"That is snow, real snow, no tremendous, +swirling, threatening drifts, no dead expanse with bare, bleak spots, +but instead, a great soft mantle, protecting the germs of the coming +crops and the ally, not the enemy of man. How white it is, as it has a +right to be. It means well. It is cold, but it is second cousin to the +seeds and to our own kind of spring. It is well connected." + +There was something to the lover's dreams and vaporings. The quality of +earth and air was changing imperceptibly but surely. The spirit of the +Lake Region was abroad and had wandered even into Iowa. + +The shadows of the telegraph poles, slanting eastward, became longer and +longer. Stafford, abandoning reluctantly his pictures of the future when +the two should be together, laughed quietly: + +"Will you always be so patient?" he asked. + +She laughed as well: "I'm afraid, big boy, that there does not live a +wise woman who cares who would not be always patient listening when the +theme was such and the object such. Did I not say that ponderously and +nicely?" she added. And he but laughed again. + +They made their way to the Cassowary, for there were many hand-shakings +and genial partings in progress there and the two were, necessarily, a +part of the scene. More than one lasting friendship had been formed in +the luxurious Cassowary. + +Evening was near. Already the Pillar of Cloud by day looming above the +shore of the great lake was plainly visible. The slower way through the +city was made, the train came to a stand-still and upon the ears of its +inmates broke all the varied station sounds, the calls of starters, the +clangor of engine bells, the trucks and the shouting of cabmen outside. + +Stafford assisted the Far Away Lady--the Far Away Lady no longer--to +alight from the platform: + +"The harshness is over," he said. "We will never part again." + +"Never," she said, and then, "It has been a long time." + +She had brightened her grey traveling dress with a rose-colored ribbon +at her throat, and her cheeks were rose-colored, too. + +"I would have come sooner, had I known," said the man. + +And they went out into the world together. + +THE END + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + +The author used symbols which are not displayable in text. + +full: a small vertical line (forming somewhat of an uppercase "I") + a small horizontal line on the right bottom (thus forming somewhat + of an uppercase "L") + a small vertical line closing the right bottom (thus forming + a square box with no top line) + lastly, a small diagonal line from half-way up the right vertical + pointing upper-left (thus forming somewhat of an uppercase "Y") + +box: all of the lines of the "full" symbol, surrounded by another box + +vertical: a small vertical line (forming somewhat of an uppercase "I") + +ell: a small vertical line (forming somewhat of an uppercase "I") + a small horizontal line on the right bottom (thus forming somewhat + of an uppercase "L") + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cassowary, by Stanley Waterloo + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASSOWARY *** + +***** This file should be named 37509.txt or 37509.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/5/0/37509/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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